While On The Road

Traveling the road between Woodstock and Powell can be interesting, often an adventure.  We pass this sunflower field, about 45 minutes from Penny Lane.  It was in soy beans last year, but we were thrilled to see the sunflowers this summer.  They are droopy and brown, today, but this is the way we think of them, bright yellow and spreading across both sides of the highway, on and on . . .  It is easy to see how Vincent could have chosen them for portraits.

When we got back to Knoxville, the strawberry plants that grow in a concrete fountain were ready for rifling.  The three-tiered fountain was in the front yard of the house in Powell when we purchased it in 2001, and moving it around back was one of the first items of business.  A friend drilled drain holes in it for me, and we've planted it with a variety of things over the years-- wave petunias do especially well in the two deeper bowls.  But a couple of years ago we put strawberry plants there.  Raising the plants from the ground saves our backs and makes finding the fruit easier.  They're small, but really sweet.  Never enough for more than a bowl at breakfast or an afternoon snack-- but I'm not complaining!

The deer seem to prefer to nibble the blueberry bushes in the front yard, though I can sometimes get a handful before the deer come to graze.  I wonder if the bunnies who dance in the grass are waiting for us to plant something for them to snack on!