National Sunflower Day!

I hope you're enjoying the beginning days of August.  I discovered today is National Sunflower Day.   That's my favorite flower.  It's normally the first Saturday of August, but it's on a Sunday this year.

Sunflowers are such a happy flower.  Their bright golden faces evoke feelings of warmth and joy. They symbolize happiness, positivity, and adoration, and represent loyalty, vitality and longevity.

North and South Dakota are the top sunflower producing states in the world, and August is their peak season.  I remember seeing fields and fields of them on our 2020 vacation out west with our son Jeremy and family.

Before I became smitten with tea, I had a sunflower themed kitchen, which I loved.  It was so cheerful especially during our long winter months. Below is the only photo I could find quickly.  It was many moons ago on my 54th birthday with four of my grandchildren [there are now eight and these four have since grown into adulthood].

A local orchard has a sunflower festival every year. The photo below was taken in 2021 when my hubby and I went.

One year [2007], I did an informal tea for the ladies of our church district at our campgrounds and used sunflowers as the decorating theme.   

I've had fun using sunflowers as a centerpiece at teas and luncheons in my home.  They're perfect with a Mexican fiesta theme.

 I received a sunflower floral arrangement for my birthday one year.

My granddaughter, Brianna [fourth in birth order], loves sunflowers too and I love this photo of her.

I almost forgot about the sunflower tablescape I did for the ladies of my church back in 2001 when I used to coordinate monthly theme dinners for them.  I had to search through my photos to find this picture.  This particular March dinner had the theme "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"  Remember that TV show?   Our dinner had a spiritual emphasis though and we didn't play the TV game.  Sunflowers make you feel like a million dollars, right?!  ;-)  Each table had their own sunflower cake to cut and eat for dessert  [Cake is nine o'clock position in the photo].  It's somewhat washed out in the photo but it was vibrant in person.  The top of the single layer cake was decorated with yellow candy coating disks to represent the outer petals and the center was miniature chocolate chips.  They were easy to make and decorate for feeding several tables of ladies and they looked cute.

And last, but certainly not least, there are sunflower teas - some herbal and some made with green tea leaves as well as black tea leaves.

Sunflower seeds are very healthy too.  I like to toss them in garden salads.

And I can't end this post without saying it's also National Watermelon Day.   I've been buying a lot of 'personal size' watermelons while I've been weight watching.  They're very healthy and one cup of cubed watermelon is only 46 calories.  Since they have a natural sweetness they satisfy cravings for something sweet, and they're good at breakfast, lunch or dinner.  I posted the photo below recently of one of my breakfasts while trying to shed some pounds.  I'm going to try a watermelon smoothie this week and will report back.  

 Are you enjoying watermelon this summer?