Wildflowers

I'm not a big flower person.

I think they're pretty and everything, but they cost way too much money and die right away.

But wildflowers. Now those are amazing.

They're cheap, and much prettier than any rose or carnation in a flower shop. 

There's just something about hiking in the woods an coming across a patch of wild daisies or little purple flowers or unidentifiable pink ones. 

It's like a little colorful break in a sea of green grass and moss and leaves, and it's so beautiful.

They have character, wildflowers. And they're like couches for fat little bumblebees.

I went to the Smokey Mountains once, and I had never seen so many wildflowers (or bumblebees!) in my life. The flowers were beautiful, all different colors, stretching across such a huge surface.

Like I said, I'm not huge on flowers. I don't plant them and I don't buy them and I don't have a million fake ones around my house. But if I see one flower in the wild, I'm all over that. I pull out my camera and take half a  dozen pictures of this little, lone, flower. 

Because they're just there. No one planted them and no one takes care of them. They just live. 

And they're beautiful.

 

Flowers everywhere!

Sunshine

I know it sounds pretty dumb, because who doesn't like sunshine, right? 

But I never realized how much I love sunshine until this year. I've always lived in Michigan, where it's winter half the year, and I was used to it. But this year, I lived in Georgia for most of the fall, and when I came back to Michigan, it was late-November.

And late-November in my part of Michigan is gloomy. And so is December, and January, and February, and March, and even most of April.

So, I'd come from Georgia, where it was sunny all the time, back to Michigan, where it was dark every day. And it was only then that I realized how incredibly amazing sunshine is.

Because it's only sunny a few months of the year, I have to take advantage of it when I can. I have this thing where I can't possibly sit inside when it's sunny out. I have to be outside. It drives me crazy if I'm inside. 

So even when there's the slightest hint of sun, I'm outside reading or writing or walking or playing yard games. Anything to get out there.

I used to get rashes and headaches from the sun, so I had to wear this really geeky visor around to protect myself. But I still went out in the sun, because it's impossible for me not to.

Now, I've realized that if I wear sunscreen, I don't get rashes, and if I wear sunglasses I don't have to squint to see, and I don't get headaches. So I look much more fashionable in the summertime.

The other problem is that sunshine kind of sucks the life out of me. I get dehydrated really easily, and one time, after a trip to Georgia in August, I had to go to the hospital and get an I.V. to replenish my body.

But I still love sunshine!

It's a complicated relationship, mine and the sun's, but it's certainly not a love-hate one. 

Just love.