Fairy Riding a Sunflower :-)

There is a wonderful field of sunflowers at our local Arboretum, and I've been a frequent visitor, trying to get as many photos as possible while they are in full bloom. Fearing that the blooms might start to fade by next week, I stopped by the Arboretum once again on Friday morning with my camera. What did I see during my visit?

-A hummingbird having a quiet breakfast of red flowers.
-A small flock of yellow birds nibbling on seeds; they scattered ahead of me as I walked through the gardens.
-A pair of fat bumblebees awakening from their nightly slumber on a lovely peachy flower the exact same shade as the morning light.
-Pink night-blooming water lilies getting ready to close up and go to sleep for the day.
-Heavenly blue morning glories being . . . well . . . heavenly and blue (and some pretty extraordinary purple ones too).

When I got to the sunflowers, I was in for a surprise. The soaker hoses were on, one at each end of the flower bed. The flowers were all dripping wet. The logistics of photography suddenly became mind-boggling.

My photo shoot that morning went mostly like this: *CLICK!* *run as fast as possible to avoid the sprinklers!* *CLICK!* *run the other direction!* (Yes, I did get a little wet, but I protected the camera!)

When I was visiting the sunflowers earlier in the week, I had been messing around with the fisheye effect, and I got some fun shots. So I tried it again - and this was one of the results.

I only noticed later that there is a little green dude atop the sunflower, hanging on. And maybe - grinning? It's probably actually a grasshopper or maybe a bee - the detail isn't quite sharp enough to tell for sure - but let us choose to live for a moment in a world of magic.

I have finally captured a shot of one of the fairies who dwell in the gardens and take care of its flowers and its tiny creatures, enjoying a morning shower atop a sunflower . . .