{"id":4408,"date":"2022-09-10T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/?p=4408"},"modified":"2022-10-04T20:31:26","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T18:31:26","slug":"sunflowers-of-my-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/blogpost\/4408","title":{"rendered":"Sunflowers of my Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"has-white-color has-text-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"background-color:#c61961;font-size:14px\"><em>Tanni for Danceof Chaos<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Life has a funny way of racing past you. Sometimes, when you take a small break, look around and take a deep breath, you realise how the circle of life goes around and around. Every year, in the same spot in my balcony blooms the sunflower. Yet every year it is different, the world is different and so am I. As I clicked a selfie with my sunflower, I was musing on how things have changed ever since I started my gardening journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_89 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6ade448d94180\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #000000;color:#000000\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #000000;color:#000000\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseprofile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6ade448d94180\"  aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/blogpost\/4408\/#first-growing\" >First Growing<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/blogpost\/4408\/#2020\" >2020<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/blogpost\/4408\/#bloom-of-2021\" >Bloom of 2021<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/blogpost\/4408\/#blossoming-2022\" >Blossoming 2022<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/blogpost\/4408\/#my-parental-leave\" >My Parental leave<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/blogpost\/4408\/#the-picture\" >The Picture<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"first-growing\"><\/span>First Growing<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first time I grew the sunflower successfully was in 2019, after a failed attempt the year before. I planted the seeds too late, so it only bloomed around mid-September. The air was already chilly and the sky was clear blue. The weather is Germany was calling for Durga ma to arrive. That was a year of happy changes for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2020\"><\/span>2020<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/20200709_101602000_iOS-1-432x768.jpg\" alt=\"Sunflower\" class=\"wp-image-4407\" width=\"324\" height=\"576\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thanks to corona and the never-ending lockdown, we spent a lot of time at home. My husband started to help me in the garden enthusiastically. We expanded our garden to grow strawberries, marigold, peas, chilli, bell pepper, coriander and many more. That year there were not one or two sunflower but a bunch of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first one bloomed around August and I was busy photographing every stage of the flower unfolding its petals. No sooner had the first one bloomed that the second one started. Then the third one and the fourth one and soon my balcony was laughing and smiling and blessing us with the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The light and life of the flowers helped me through the grief of losing my grandmother and not able to see her one last time. Another lockdown had started. Little did I know I was already blessed with something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"bloom-of-2021\"><\/span>Bloom of 2021<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A couple of months into 2021, we realized that our life is going to change for ever, that soon a tiny human will rule us. We were busy setting the blog up for the business, working on relaunching the website, launching the shop. That, our hectic work schedule and all the doctors appointments, preparing ourselves for the arrival of little K, meant the spring and summer months whooshed right past us and we were in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/20210825_123731000_iOS-576x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4398\" width=\"288\" height=\"384\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/20210825_123731000_iOS-576x768.jpg 576w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/20210825_123731000_iOS-150x200.jpg 150w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/20210825_123731000_iOS-scaled-800x1067.jpg 800w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/20210825_123731000_iOS-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/20210825_123731000_iOS-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/20210825_123731000_iOS-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/20210825_123731000_iOS-990x1320.jpg 990w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/20210825_123731000_iOS-441x588.jpg 441w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/20210825_123731000_iOS-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 288px) 100vw, 288px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since last year, my garden adventures have taken a step back. I have not stopped gardening, it gives me joy and calms me down but I have most definitely taken it down a few notches. I did plant sunflower seeds and this time they were the giant plants. I did not realize how gigantic they would be until the flower blossomed &nbsp;completely. It was nature\u2019s work of art. I only managed to get one single flower and it brightened up my entire balcony. Around that time, my amazing tribe of girls decided to throw me a baby shower with theme of bee. There I was, &nbsp;bee queen, dressed in sunflower yellow, with baby K inside me, eighth month of gestation ongoing. That day has been one of my most precious memory. Not surprisingly, some real life bees made regular visits to my sunflower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The life of this beautiful sunflower did end in tragedy. Our neighbourhood squirrels were eyeing her for a while and on a September morning, two of them came, jumped on the plant, and bit my beautiful flower off and ate her. I was just too slow and bulky to react. Then again, who am I to interrupt in how nature has organised everything. The flower was not just made for me to feast upon visually, was it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"blossoming-2022\"><\/span>Blossoming 2022<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"my-parental-leave\"><\/span>My Parental leave<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year, 2022 has been different in many ways. I took a yearlong parental leave to care for baby K and resumed working from August. It was a long time off the usual hustle and bustle of life I have known for the last twelve years of my life. While managing household with a baby was definitely a challenge of its own, it also freed up my time to focus on the garden. The motto this year was also \u201cless is more\u201d . Additionally, I &nbsp;reorganised the entire house and the balcony to have more free moving space for me and for baby K.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/me_sunflower_2022-608x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4396\" width=\"304\" height=\"384\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/me_sunflower_2022-608x768.jpg 608w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/me_sunflower_2022-scaled-150x189.jpg 150w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/me_sunflower_2022-scaled-800x1010.jpg 800w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/me_sunflower_2022-158x200.jpg 158w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/me_sunflower_2022-768x969.jpg 768w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/me_sunflower_2022-1217x1536.jpg 1217w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/me_sunflower_2022-1622x2048.jpg 1622w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/me_sunflower_2022-990x1250.jpg 990w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/me_sunflower_2022-441x557.jpg 441w, https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/me_sunflower_2022-scaled.jpg 2028w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 304px) 100vw, 304px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have never enjoyed a German summer so much as I did this year. Baby K has been around and cooperating so much that taking her out for walk, doing Yoga in balcony together has been a very destressing experience for me. Finally, after trying since I was pregnant, could I gear down my hectic life to a mindfully calm pace. It was not always so idyllic. Motherhood brings its own challenges, the lesser financial freedom, the pressure of being in charge of the householdChris, secretly was a little jealous. Now that I am working, and he is on parental leave, he lounges on balcony with baby K and I look at them from my home office table wistfully. I can do that; my table is opposite to our balcony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My father came in March and with his help I could lay the groundwork for my minimized garden. You can read about it <a href=\"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/spring-gardening-2022-declutter-with-dad\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"4136\">here<\/a>. Maybe because baby K is so interested in colours and discovering the beauties of the world, I have added a lot of flowers in our garden. The sunflower still remains the queen. Taking lesson from last year, we grew her a little outside the pathway of the squirrels. I mean, nature will take her course but no need to make it quick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"the-picture\"><\/span>The Picture<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last week I took a picture with my sunflower. Soon enough, the digital memory was showing that I took a picture on the exact same day, one year back, wearing the exact same dress. Baby K was gestating within me last year. This year, baby K is crawling already and I had to pick her up to take a picture with her and sunflower. Who knows what next year will bring? Maybe baby K will lovingly stroke her flower sister. Or maybe when I am not looking, she would accomplish what the squirrels did last year. She does like the taste of soil very much already. So who knows, if she would not develop a taste of the sunflower petals and seeds too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As summer gives way to chilly autumn days, the cycle of season repeats its endless journey, I grow a year older and wiser and be thankful for all the blessings that the sunflowers in my life have brought to me.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Life has a funny way of racing past you. Sometimes, when you take a small break, look around and take a deep breath, you realise how the circle of life goes around and around. Every year, in the same spot in my balcony blooms the sunflower. Yet every year it is different, the world is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"","timeOption":"","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":""},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[39,58,131,140,13],"tags":[199],"class_list":["post-4408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vegetable-gardening-stories","category-the-featured-posts","category-musings","category-creative-content","category-gardening-green-family","tag-gardening-2"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1340,"url":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/blogpost\/1340","url_meta":{"origin":4408,"position":0},"title":"Meine MS Teams Erfahrung","author":"DanceofChaos","date":"August 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Day to Day with DanceofChaos Hallo ihr Lieben, willkommen auf meinem Blog und den ersten deutschsprachigen Beitrag. Ich h\u00e4tte es nicht vor, auf Deutsch zu schreiben. Leider habe ich einmal zu viel der English F\u00e4higkeit meiner Mann kritisiert und habe die Herausforderung bekommen : auf Deutsch einen Beitrag zu schreiben.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ProductivityinWorkLife&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ProductivityinWorkLife","link":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/blogpost\/category\/productivity-life-work"},"img":{"alt_text":"dedicated working space","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2DC38009-8197-4711-9ADF-9453033E9042.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2DC38009-8197-4711-9ADF-9453033E9042.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2DC38009-8197-4711-9ADF-9453033E9042.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2DC38009-8197-4711-9ADF-9453033E9042.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2DC38009-8197-4711-9ADF-9453033E9042.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2DC38009-8197-4711-9ADF-9453033E9042.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/sunflower_2022-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32877,"href":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408\/revisions\/32877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}