Provence?

No, I'm not in France.................I'm just taking a quick break from my Africa posts to show you why I'm enjoying the garden so much.

Coming up the driveway following my 27 hour trip home from Africa, I was greeted by these!  Tall golden sunflowers.  Were my eyes blurred from travelling, or was it an optical illusion due to my tiredness?  It took a few minutes for me to realize that the birdseed scattered beneath the feeder had germinated and I had a sunflower patch.  The feeder has been there for several years.  Because we had large trees in this area until their removal in January due to the roots cracking and lifting the driveway, I'm guessing there wasn't sufficient sunlight to grow these sun-loving beauties.

The bees are loving the flowers and I'm sure the birds and squirrels will be fighting over the seed heads when they ripen come late Summer.  Even the green buds are beautiful.  May not be back to gasp in delight at the sunflower fields of Provence for a while........but at least I have a touch of Vincent van Gogh right here in my garden this year!