I have been burgled.
Thieves have struck Scarborough Acres. One day all was well, the next - ‘poof’ - the
goods were gone. By the light of a
waning moon burglars had not simply left their mark, they had taken it with
them, along with my stuff.
Gone, split, disappeared, with no hope of a return. All that was left were a few tangled wisps of
gold mixed with shards and splinters.
I’ve seen the culprits. They’ve been hanging around, always
on the lookout for something they can get away with. They’ve been getting
bolder lately, standing out in the open, watching. We certainly didn’t expect this.
This was bold and brazen. This was in your face. This was eat the fat blossom right off the
top of the sunflower stalk and sprinkle what was left at the base just to let
me know he/she/it could.
I plant sunflowers every year. Local farmers are baffled by
my insistence on planting these – in their opinions - giant weeds. Our rural
friends spend a great deal of time and energy ridding their fields of these golden giants and can’t understand why someone would purposefully plant a garden full.
(I plant milkweed too. Gotta feed the butterflies.) Me, I love watching them
grow from gangly youngsters to towering kings of all they survey. It’s a
pleasure to be greeted each morning with such wide open delight circled in
a tousled amber crown.
Not this year, however.
Under cover of darkness, a thief or thieves actually removed the heads
of nearly my entire crop. Evidently dessert was not on the menu, the only tops
left are hardly a mouthful, even for a small, hungry creature of the night.
The thing is, it didn’t need to happen. I’d have shared. The
plan has always been to grow a batch of big fat sunflowers, then enjoy a plein
air painting extravaganza just a few
steps from my back door. When I had my
fill of painting golden halos against blue skies and the heads began to droop I
would have stepped aside and welcomed any number of birds or squirrels, which ever got there
first.
2010 Patricia Scarborough Square 16 - Sunflowers Private Collection
2011 Patricia Scarborough Salute! Available at Graham Gallery
Someone cut in line, and now I’ve been robbed, raided,
bamboozled even. (Maybe not bamboozled. I just like the word.) There goes the neighborhood. If I want to go on my usual August sunflower painting jag I'm going to have to go hunting for them far beyond the comfort of my yard.
Looking for sunflowers for 2012
While you're waiting for my sunflower paintings from the summer of 2012, stop by The Burkholder Project in Lincoln, Ne. You've got 2 more weeks to see "Common Ground" featuring your intrepid sunflower painter and ceramic artist Sharon Ohmberger. It's worth a peak. Quick! Before it's gone!
