Trip to the Sunflower Farm

My long awaited and eagerly anticipated day out at Washington Farms occurred today. I went with a friend to the famous farm which features corn maze, pig races, hayrides, kids' activities, and on the other side of the entry gate, a sunflower farm and pumpkin patch. This is the non-kids' side and it is the part we went through.

The Sunflower Farm and pumpkin patch, and shed containing jellies, honey and relishes, offers free admittance. There fields of yellow after yellow, and also colorful peonies, is a draw for many photographers. My friend likes to take photos too, and so we left early so as to arrive at their opening time and also while the sun was a bit lower.

We were fortunately spared any effects from Hurricane Andrew, thankfully, so it wasn't rainy. It was a bit breezy which was great because the day was saturated with bright sun and a hot temperature! I thought by October 8, the second week the Farm is open in the fall, that it'd be cooler. But it was OK, we only spent an hour poking around the flowers and took shots of all we wanted.

The parking lot filled up within minutes of the 10am opening but our time in the sunflowers was free from crowd and loud, as the families with children went on into the Farm area itself to enjoy the many activities that were offered over there.

The Farm had posted a short note last week advising that the traditionally lush fields of flowers was quite diminished this year, due to the drought. I'd noticed driving home on Friday that as I passed the yard on the way to my driveway that the bushes were severely drooping sadly. The drought effects are really becoming noticeable now. It was the same with the sunflowers, though many individual flowers were still available to photo (or cut if we wanted to pay $1 per stem). The ground was indeed hard and dusty and the flowers were pretty droopy.

We were happy, though, because there were still areas which were beautiful in which to poke around and bask in the beauty.

Afterward we stopped and got a couple of tacos and yakked for about an hour, then did a very few errands, and headed home. It was relaxing and perfect! A nice day out which was followed by a nap, completing my assignments for two classes I'm taking, and then playing with photos!

Here are just a few of the 75 shots I took today.

Sunflowers are enchanting

A few years ago, a friend invited me to her garden. I was to help her pick and she would share whatever I desired to take away from our joint labor. I'm from the north, ME and RI originally, and I was at that time recently relocated here. I was unfamiliar with the long growing season and the variety of goods one can coax from the Georgia ground. Even though sunflowers can be grown in ME, I had never seen them.

The surprise of her garden, to me, were the sunflowers. I loved seeing the tall giants and bright petals. I took some photos, but later regretted I had not taken enough. I wanted to bask among them while I was there but also wanted to view photos of them from every angle later.

Sunflowers entranced Van Gogh too. Wikipedia records this,

Van Gogh began painting in late summer 1888 and continued into the following year. One went to decorate his friend Paul Gauguin's bedroom. The paintings show sunflowers in all stages of life, from full bloom to withering. The paintings were considered innovative for their use of the yellow spectrum, partly because newly invented pigments made new colours possible.

Van Gogh wanted to paint "big flowers" He said,

The peony is Jeannin's, the hollyhock belongs to Quost, but the sunflower is somewhat my own.

I understand the attraction. They are majestic flowers, and the yellow is bright and happy. Here are a few photos of that day in the garden.

I'm excited to have planned a trip with a friend to a sunflower farm in early October! I plan to take LOTS of photos! From the Farm's website photos of the sunflower garden, it seem they have a species that's a bit shorter than these 16 foot mountainous blooms I'd visited some years ago, so it will be a fun day exploring a new type of sunflower.

Fall is a great time of year in Georgia. :)