We didn’t plant this.

Last year there were the pavement pumpkins, sprouting from the compost bin and stretching their massive vines across the driveway.  This year we have the stowaway sunflower.

I noticed the stem when it was already a few feet high–all right, I’m not a good weeder–poking up from our front flowerbed. ‘That looks like a sunflower,’ I thought, and didn’t weed it.  It grew taller and taller, unfurling leaf after leaf  until we both started to believe it might spike up into the clouds and become a fire pole for golden goose thieves and angry giants.  When it reached 12 feet or so, it finally opened its (slightly wonky, but cheerful) yellow face.

I suppose the seed was dropped or buried by some forgetful little animal, but I prefer to imagine that it was planted by a squirrel with a horticultural bent– one who visits people’s flowerbeds, decides where there should be a splash of color or a burst of foliage, pats a few seeds into place, and moves on.

For other things that make me happy, see this review in Beyond Books: http://beyondbooks.ca/?p=5427