I’ve always loved sunflowers. They’re happy and cheerful, just like me. Well, whatever…

Vincent Van Gogh (his name is pronounced similar to “fan cough” in Dutch, by the way) painted them in one of his famous paintings, named (SURPRISE!) “Sunflowers.” He was a rather morose character; probably needed to go sit in a field of sunflowers for about three years.

Mary planted some sunflowers one year, and they grew like crazy. I think one was close to seven feet tall. Then, at the end of the summer, she told me to cut them down. Broke my heart, but they’re just annuals; they wouldn’t come back. I wish I had learned how to get the seeds out of the plant so I could plant more the following year, but this was in the days before the Internet (remember those?) and I didn’t know where to turn. I asked a friend…