Sunflowers ready for market.

The sunflowers are starting to bloom now and it will be a sea of yellow soon. We plant sunflowers as a windbreak for the delicate flowers that can be damaged from the wind. So they have a dual purpose, as we also harvest their flowers for fresh sales and there is always plenty left to go to seed for the birds in winter. Yesterday we took 2 truckloads of flowers into the city and sold to the florists. We have never had to do that before, as we usually get them all in one load. Lots of beautiful flowers. Will also take flowers in again on Wednesday for the flower shops.
This year we are noticing that a lot of the birds have left already, the yard anyway.....not sure if they are hanging out elsewhere. The tree swallows, first batch of bluebirds, and robins have left the yard. We see a few tree swallows once in a while, but we don't remember them leaving this early in previous years....but then again we have never had this many birds nesting in the yard before, so maybe we just did not notice this happening.
The vegetables are loving this warm weather lately and are looking so healthy. We are going to have start watering the dahlias today, so we could use another inch of rain soon. We do have everything mulched now, so it will stop the moisture from evaporating.
The small greenhouse is now home to a garter snake. We are now using it for storage and when ever we go into it, the snake slithers away into a hole in the ground inside the greenhouse. It must be enjoying the warm temperature inside the greenhouse.