Showing posts with label sunflowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sunflowers. Show all posts

Thursday, August 31, 2023

In A Field Of Suns ...

“ Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows. It’s what the sunflowers do.”

             ~ Helen Keller

              ~ 1880 ~ 1968

Though the sun often dipped behind the clouds on this late August afternoon, the field of sunflowers shone their beauty like little suns in the Sunflower Garden of St. Luke’s Hospital, Anderson Campus, Easton, Pennsylvania.

 

A bee decided to buzz in and photobomb this shot, landing on the sunflower in the foreground.

 

Young sunflowers move to face the sun, a movement called heliotropism. Mature sunflowers generally stop moving and remain facing East, which lets them be warmed by the rising sun.

 

The sunflower (or “soniashnyk”) is Ukraine’s national flower and has been grown on its central and eastern steppes since the middle of the 18th century. And today, in light of Russia’s horrific invasion of Ukraine, the sunflower is a symbol of “I Stand With Ukraine!”

 

St. Luke’s also has a Cosmos Field filled with their colorful, daisy-like blooms, as cosmos are related to sunflowers and daisies.


 

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Yellow Stands For The Sun ...

“How lovely yellow is! It stands for the sun.”

   ~ Vincent van Gogh

     ~ 1853 ~ 1890

 

Van Gogh loved yellow, and the striking use of the color is seen in his paintings. Van Gogh’s paintings of sunflowers are among his most famous, painted in Arles, in the south of France, in 1888 and 1889.

 

The sunflower (or “soniashnyk”) is Ukraine’s national flower and has been grown on its central and eastern steppes since the middle of the 18th century. And today, in light of Russia’s horrific invasion of Ukraine, the sunflower is a symbol of “I Stand With Ukraine!”

A gorgeous sunflower stands tall and shines its beauty on a lovely mid-August afternoon on the grounds of Kreidersville Covered Bridge, Allen Township, on the outskirts of Northampton, Pennsylvania.

Kreidersville Covered Bridge was built in 1839 and is loved for its great history and tranquil setting by the Hokendauqua Creek. It is the only covered bridge left in Northampton County.

The pedestrian-only bridge that crosses the Hokendauqua Creek is the oldest covered bridge in the Lehigh Valley and one of the oldest in the state. The historic wooden Burr Truss Bridge has a 116-foot-long span and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.


 

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Sunshine On The Water ...




“Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy, sunshine in my eyes can make me cry.
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely, sunshine almost always makes me high.
If I had a day that I could give you, I’d give to you the day just like today.
If I had a song that I could sing for you, I’d sing a song to make you feel this way …

If I had a tale that I could tell you, I’d tell a tale sure to make you smile.
If I had a wish that I could wish for you, I’d make a wish for sunshine all the while …

Sunshine on the water looks so lovely, sunshine almost always makes me high.”

                 ~ “Sunshine On My Shoulders”
             ~ recorded & co-written by John Denver
                            ~ 1973


The summer was waning but its special beauty still shone through on an early September afternoon when I saw this sunflower bloom gently floating and reflecting in the creek at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Two other sunflower blooms were floating nearby, and John Denver's beautiful  “Sunshine On My Shoulders” immediately sprang to my thoughts, with its wonderful lyrics – isn’t this what we’d all want to give those we love?

Indeed, sunshine on the water looks so lovely.