Granny's bonnet

This blue Columbine flower just appeared out of nowhere-- a garden volunteer.  Columbine plants only live for 2 or 3 years but they self-seed if you're lucky.  This one probably arrived via critter conveyance from a neighbor's yard.

Speaking of seeds, I planted three packages of sunflowers and four packages of zinnias this spring. For all that fussy work and watering, the result was zero, zip, zilch.  Most didn't germinate and the poor ones that sprouted were immediately snipped off by slugs, beetles, etc.  And I wasn't about to drench the ground with pesticide just for a few flowers.

Well, I won't bother planting expensive flower seeds again. It's frustrating though because I had luck with sunflower seeds once. I found this 2005 photo to prove it. Nice looking border, if I don't say so myself.

Anyway, sometimes the best things in life are free. The Columbine is the state flower of Colorado. They come in many different colors, but I think blue is the prettiest. The flower is also known as "Granny's bonnet."

Here's an old picture of my great-granny in her bonnet, working with great-grandad on their Pennsylvania farm.  Elamanda (I love that name) was my dad's grandmother-- his mother's mother. 

I cropped the photo to show her sweet face better. I feel like I know her, but unfortunately she died before I was born.  If she was anything like her daughter, our Grammy Bleam, then she was a lovely person.

This photo of Grammy's family was taken one summer day in about 1930. From left to right back row: Uncle Clarence, Aunt Helen, Grammy, her parents Emanuel and Elamanda.  In the front, our dad Samuel with a little girl I don't recognize.

The farm produced enough food during the Depression to feed a big family.  Everyone worked hard, and no one traveled more than a few miles from home. The kids wore hand-me-downs and someone put a bowl on dad's head to cut his hair. Ha!

Despite being poor, everyone looks relaxed and happy...a simple life and a gentle time.  I never heard an unkind word spoken at Grammy's house.  I wish I could just step into this picture and sit on the porch and talk with them all afternoon.