The Squirrels Stole My Sunflowers

Flowers are ephemeral, I know this, here today in glorious color, and dried and withered tomorrow. The grass withers, the flower fades, but I thought I'd have another day or two with my sunflowers.

The blooms had already passed, I was just waiting to harvest the seeds from them. I would have done it a day or two ago, but the heads were still wet from the rain we've had recently. I was waiting for them to dry out. Yesterday, I came home from work to discover that the squirrels that live in my and my neighbor's yards got to them first.

I'm not sure how they did it, exactly, but they stole the heads off my sunflowers, clipped them right off. I found one of the heads - emptied of all its seeds - surrounded by a litter of shells under tree where the squirrels roost.

Setting Sunflowers on Fire by Jeff Carter on 500px