i love...

sunflowers...well all flowers really...but especially sunflowers make me so happy! they are so gorgeous, and you can almost watch their heads follow the sun when they are growing. how amazing is that?!! these are from my mom's garden:

my mom has what we call an english garden, but really we just throw a variety of seeds at the ground every spring, sit back, and ENJOY beyond belief throughout the summer. it's a perfectly unorganized mix of happy happy plants and i love every inch of it! every time i go to her house we walk around her yard, laugh at how good certain underdog plants have done, and wonder why some haven't done so well. nevertheless, it's something i always look forward to and a habit that my grandmother and i formed a couple of years ago.

whenever i go to my grandparents lake house, i set my alarm to wake up before anyone else in the house, (except my grandparents because they wake up instinctively at 5am) grandmother and i get our coffee and walk through her extensive, legitimate "english garden". it is such a treasured ritual of ours and she has taught me more in the last 2 years (the time i have been infatuated with all things plant) than i could probably have learned in a lifetime of better homes and gardens. i don't know if i love gardening because i truly love the process and the plants or because the 2 most important women in my life value it so much. i'm sure it's a combination of both, but i can say i'm hooked for life. i have never even had my own garden because of our apt living, so when i get complete control of my first plot of land just watch out. i may get lost in it. until then, i will live vicariously through all the other "english gardens" in my life.