Sunflower

A Sunflower.

I spent almost the whole day in my garden yesterday and at last it is almost back to where I would like it to be. I filled my brown garden refuse bin and my neighbours. They were taken away by the bin men and I almost immediately filled it again and will be looking for a neighbours with little in it for the next collection. 

It is hard work and the price of spending so much time in France. 

The downside is that I have been painting at least one painting a day for the last two months and now for three days I have sone none.

My whole concentration has been on doing what I have not done for ages. I have been tampering with nature. Cutting back the growth of bushes and grass, pulling out weeds, which are only flowers n the wrong places.

When you look at the beauty of nature closely even weeds can be a thing of rare beauty.  This sunflower was an escapee. Some seed from its parental background had been carried by a bird to the edge of a path and there it had reproduced, and may well continue to do so.

It may been seen as a weed. In the wrong place. To some unfriendly being where it is not meant to be.  But there it is it has its own beauty its thousands of seeds with such potential to go on creating even more. 

When we paint such things of nature, flowers, trees , bark and such I creep down beside them and breath on them and look at their beauty in detail and try to share it with others. 

I often find myself trembling with the sense of wonder, they seem to be so much more sensual and beautiful than anything produced by humans. 

I do not touch them, but they sure do touch me deep in my inner being.

I hope I can inspire more to go and look closely at weeds, you might even end up taking a picture or two or even making a painting. You might even end up like my good friend Dave MacKay and end up saying, "That is fair braw."

Another thought, we often treat people we do not understand like we do weeds. It just might be that they are people just for a bit in the wrong place, with a little help they might become something of beauty.

Have a wonderful day and make sure to look at the weeds. I am working on my last weed of France one I saw at the side of a canal on my last walk for a bit in that land.