The other day I planted some freesia bulbs.

About a week later, a lovely green thing sprouted from their pot.  I was convinced these freesias were the awesomest ever– even if only one actually was deciding to poke out way early.

Now I know the freesias suck– they probably croaked somewhere, sometime a while back in their little dirt tomb without so much as a postcard or some sort of notification (i.e. “We regret to inform you that, as far as freesias go, we totally suck.  And that soil sucked too, so don’t even think it was all us  Bitch. XOXO, the freesia bulbs”).

But some very old sunflower seed, which I got for free at the Arlington County Fair last year and had tossed at random in my pile of usable dirt, somehow found a happy spot and decided to come up for air.  It’s so incredibly pretty and simple in all its sunflowery, follow-the-sun glory.

Honestly, there is no more cheerful flower, and the best part of it is the fact that hopefully I will be able to harvest its seeds and keep the joy going.  I don’t expect there to be enough to eat, but certainly there will be enough to have at least another sunflower next year, I hope.

If you want to restore a little faith in the beauty of life, bring plants into your life.

(And um– sunflowers produce the seeds and the oil, so writing about them qualifies as a food post.  There)