We didn't plant anything in our yard intentionally for years, but bird feeders went up almost right away. Maybe it was their food? I don't know, but whatever brought all these wild sunflowers to us, it was very unexpected. You'll see them all over the county, along road sides and in fields. They typically don't grow wild up here where we live.
Once they start blooming, they fill up with little birds with yellow and green on their wings, as well as bees. They're an ecosystem all their own. We choose to leave them up through winter, so the snow birds can pick them clean. It was one such sunflower, a much larger one, that inspired the name for our business. It had a very distinctive head, and in the grey of winter, with snow on it, it caught my heart.
That spring I cut it and took it to my incredibly talented friend Tracy Turner. From its inspiration, she drew the design and cut the original block to print out first logo.
(My husband, the engineer, calls our solar panel trackers sunflowers as well. He will tell you that's how the business got its name. It's that right brain-left brain thing again. I prefer the more romantic story.)
3 comments:
Oh Martie, I love all those sunflowers! I let some of the bird planted ones grow in my yard too (in addition to the ones I plant in the garden). It's fun to see what kinds of birds and insects are attracted to them.
Thank you for posting this lovely photo--it takes me right to Arroyo Seco and many autumns I enjoyed there. I can almost smell the chile roasting!
Ramona: Oh my gosh! The chiles are in the stores now, huge sacks of them. I am still using a supply from another year or I'd be tempted to get more. And you're so right...there's nothing that says fall in el norte like the smell of roasting chiles. It's the best!
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