Standing out in the field

Posted on October 9, 2023 by dinajohnston

I found a new sunflower farm closer to my home (still almost an hour away though). Up in Spring Hill, an hour north of Tampa, Jimmy MC’s farm has U-pick sunflowers during the spring. I headed up there on the final weekend of the season almost at the end of May. This is not a big farm with activities for little kids. This is just a farm that you can go and pick your own sunflowers. It’s free to get in and $5 for two handfuls of sunflowers. I parked near the barn and walked out to the sunflower field.

They do have a picturesque tub that you can climb in and take pictures.

It was the last weekend of their season but the field was still full of sunflowers. It was hard deciding which ones to pick. So many! I looked for new buds that weren’t drooping yet and covered in bees. I didn’t want to disturb the much needed honey bees.

I was inspecting each one that I was thinking of picking and found this green spider on the back of one. I didn’t want to take him home (last year I brought home a small creme colored spider and put him in the backyard).

They had a lot of cows next to the sunflower field and I was envious of the ones in the back going for a swim. It was a hot morning. Their pond had really shrunk from the drought. Once most of the good flowers were picked they let the cows in the field and eat the remaining sunflowers.

As I walked back to my car I saw this sandhill crane family in the grassy parking area. I had my camera in the car so I pulled it out and snapped a few shots of them feeding. Junior was almost fully grown but still getting food from his parents.

I loved seeing the windmill out in the cow pasture so I stopped and snapped the above with my phone.

A small part of my stash that I brought home.

“I’m walking on sunshine, yeah!”

Posted on June 30, 2022 by dinajohnston

There’s something magical about standing in the middle of sunflowers.

There were all types of sunflowers here at Sweetfield Farms in early May. Some had yellow faces and some had black faces. Some had big faces and small petals and some had small faces with long yellow petals. I grabbed a pair of clippers and went out to pick a bunch to take home but it was tough to decide which ones to pick. I ended up with a bunch of different ones.

Most of the faces had bees on them but when you clipped them the bees flew off. If you are really afraid of the bees, you can buy the ones in the barn that are already picked. Either way they were $2 a stem. I really didn’t feel like there were a lot of bees swarming around me though. There are plenty without bees as well.

There were other critters on them as well.

It was a beautiful morning out and I was loaded down as I was walking to the car with my camera, zinnias, sunflowers and a few vegetables I picked.

“Farm livin is the life for me”

Posted on June 23, 2022 by dinajohnston

Every year I can’t wait to visit Sweetfield Farms in mid-May (although I missed 2020 for obvious reasons). Besides the sunflower fields, the farm has a lot of animals and activities going on during their festival.

They have rows of zinnias in all of the colors. You can pick them for $1 and I brought home a handful of them.

The one thing I noticed was there was a lot less butterflies here than last year. Maybe it was timing. Or lack of rain or too many pesticides? I was 2 weeks earlier than I went last year.

I’m not sure what these are but they were growing in the vegetable garden.

I know these yellow flowers are zucchinis. You could pick these as well and I took home a big one to saute in my spaghetti sauce.

I was watching the horses at the farm next door run around.

It’s always fun to feed the goats.

Just a boy and his turkey! He brought out some of the turkeys for people to pet. They were friendly although they don’t look like it.

But the main reason to come here is the sunflowers. I took a ton of pictures so more on those later.

Also linking to Your Moment Blog Hop.

Up close with a hitchhiker

Posted on August 17, 2021 by dinajohnston

I was playing around with my macro lens using my stash from my trip to the Sweetfield Farms sunflower festival.

There are a lot of different types of sunflowers. Some have all yellow in the middle, some have black middles, some grow big and some grow little.

As I was taking up close shots of the flowers that I picked at the sunflower festival, I noticed this tiny critter hiding under one of the petals. He was smaller than my pinky nail and blended into the yellow petals. After taking some pictures of him, I relocated him to the backyard.

A field of sunflowers

Posted on July 22, 2021 by dinajohnston

It all starts here. Not quite yet blooming at Sweetfield Farms.

It’s somehow theraputic to walk around a sunflower field. They were in full bloom in mid-May. Most were blooming way over my head.

It was a perfect sunny day to take pictures of the yellow flowers (even though ti was a little warm)

Every one looks just a little different. Many had bees on them.

Someone had made a face out of this older flower. You could see the sunflowers seeds underneath. In the past you would just buy the flowers already picked at the barn on the way out but this time you could pick your own. They give you clippers and let you walk around and pick out the ones you want. One thing they said was to cut the flatter faces if possible. Those were fresher since the seeds hadn’t started to grow. As the flower gets older the seeds grow and the face bowls out. By the time it bowls out the yellow petals will fall off soon. Another thing is that they are heavy. I cut 5 big ones and was trying to carry by camera stuff and the zinnias I had cut before this. It was a long trip back to the car. This is where having Brett with me would have come in handy (although then I would have spent a small fortune). He was busy playing golf so I was on my own.

My stash when I got home.

I guess my love of sunflowers started early. We grew them in our backyard when I was growing up. They were always much smaller than the ones on the farm. This was me in the early 70’s.

Fun on a farm

Posted on July 19, 2021 by dinajohnston

I love going to see the sunflowers at Sweetfield Farms in the spring. Not just because there are fields of flowers but there’s also farm animals. They had baby goats when I visited in mid-May. They were so cute They would come right up to the fence and you could feed them hay. The kids were going crazy over them.

It’s always fun seeing the male turkey showing off when the female walked by.

And you know I love chickens.

They also have vegatables that you could pick. I think the zucchini blooms those yellow flowers.

A grasshopper on a leaf. I’m sure it’s not a good thing to have a grasshopper on your farm. Assuming a lot of them would eat through your plants.

I found a bluebird near the edge of the farm.

So many sunflowers. These were some of the smaller ones. More to come on those.

Back at Bok

Posted on May 24, 2021 by dinajohnston

Driving into Bok Tower Gardens you wind through orange groves and you can see the top of the carillon hovering over the trees. At this point the trees were heavy with ripe oranges in early April. I wish it was closer to my home. It’s an hour and a half away but worth the drive every once in a while. The worst part is putting your life on the line driving across crazy I4 for about 45 minutes but after that it’s a nice back road drive through small towns. I like seeing the cows as I pass by and I keep an eye out for eagles cruising in the skies.

This huge beautiful arrangement greats you at the entrance of the visitor’s center.

Lots of yellow and orange blooming when I was there. I love the orange sunflowers.

Little critters were flying around.

I found a lot of amaryllis blooming near the back exit by the parking lot. It made me think it was still Christmas but the heat reminded me it was not.

This was an interesting cactus. I don’t remember ever seeing these guys sprout like this. It looked like a big asparagus growing out of it.

I was hoping for a few spring migrates at the bird feeder by the pond but all I got was catbirds and cardinals.

While sitting on the bench waiting for birds at the feeder, this guy walked right up to me. Maybe people feed them here? He looked at me for a few seconds and then went to the ground under the feeder and started digging around for seeds. I think we had a connection!

Little hummers and other things

Posted on January 11, 2021 by dinajohnston

My second ever rufous hummingbird sighting. This one and the one before were both at Bok Tower Gardens. Rufous hummingbirds are fairly rare around this area. This is only the 2nd time of hearing about one and I was happy to have seen it even briefly. I caught him high up on a tree taking a break. When he went to feed, he would go deep in the bushes or the other side making it impossible to get feeding shots. At one point I could barely see him feeding deep in the firebush.

Ruby throated hummingbirds are pretty common. I caught this male feeding near the carillon tower.

He buzzed off and disappeared. I stood under a pine tree for a long time waiting for him to come back. At one point I looked up and he was sitting right over my head.

Birds with yellow. The top one is an easy one, a yellow throated warbler. The 2nd I think is a red eyed vireo with a bug. The last is a a female common yellowthroat.