Not to worry though, my lovely son-in-law came up with a new suggestion for me - planting, growing and nurturing some sunflowers. Now I know it doesn't sound like much, but trust me, this is quite a big deal. For as long as I can remember, right from early childhood, I have been frightened of sunflowers! Yes, I know it sounds silly and it's completely irrational, but there it is. To be fair, since my teenage years it's been more of a dislike than an actual fear, but we're not talking some sort of mild 'they're not my favourite type of flowers' kind of thing. Other people may enthuse about how the sunflower's golden tones emulate the sun, or how they provide food for birds and insects and encourage pollen distribution in the garden, but not me. As a child I remember having to pass some peering over the top of a high wall on my way to school, their giant faces leaning over to spy on me, enormous leaves moving in the breeze as if to reach down and grab me like some malevolent alien beanstalk more at home on Doctor Who and with no redeeming golden harp or bags of money at the top. I would cry at the thought of having to walk past them, pulling at my mum's hand and dragging my heels until she eventually gave up at my stubbornness and crossed to the other side of the road - only marginally better. Even worse than that, my best friend's dad insisted on growing them in his garden every year - a true test of our friendship that I still managed to go round to her house despite my anxiety. Other children might have had nightmares about monsters under the bed; for me it was giant sunflowers outside my window, tapping on the glass to try and get in.
Anyway, you'll be glad to know I've moved on from those days. I no longer cross the road to avoid sunflowers, I don't dream about them coming to get me and they haven't reduced me to tears for many years, but I still don't like them and I have never had any desire to want any in my garden. So you see how this is a bigger 'Fifty First' than it initially appeared?
Well, not one to resist a challenge, you'll be pleased to know that I've bought a packet of seeds, so that's the first step. At the weekend I'll plant some and then 'll check them every day and water them regularly. I'll even make sure that once they've germinated I keep them away from my rabbits until they're big enough to plant out in the garden. And I daresay that I can keep them past flowering to provide food for the birds in the autumn. The only problem is that when I bought the seeds in the supermarket whilst doing the weekly shop, only the dwarf variety that will grow to about a couple of feet instead of six or eight feet or more were available.
Do you think that counts?
Is it a cop out?
Do I really have to go and buy some proper giant sunflower seeds
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