Honoring Tina

So last week I posted a little something when I found out Tina Downey had passed. I am still so sad about it. But today is about honoring Tina and to do so, many across the internets are sharing sunflowers.

I've only manage to successfully raise sunflowers twice—once in Portland and once here. I think my problem, in addition to the fact I'm broadly a gardening failure, is squirrels.

A much bigger sunflower than this

See, Squirrels LOVE sunflower seeds and several of the times I've planted them, I realize several days later than not only do I not have little spouts, what I HAVE is little HOLES... Which reminds me of one of my FAVORITE squirrel sitings ever. I was walking home from work one day several years ago and a squirrel was BACKING up a tree dragging this GIANT sunflower. Guess the greedy little guy figured he wanted more than he could fit in his cheeks.

Tina was very much a sunflower—spreading joy and cheer as she made her way around to help us all be a bit cheerier. I'm probably more like that greedy squirrel—stealing a little joy where I can, but definitely appreciating when someone has so much of it to offer.

The bigger the better, eh?

And they promote creativity...

And dexterity, eh?

Oh, Tina, you are definitely missed.