Short stories and photos shared with humor and love
We’re headed to the Bergsbaken Sunflower Festival today for last time. After 10 years of timing their crop to bloom at exactly the right weekend, and plowing parking lots, and ducking tornadoes, and corralling volunteers, and setting up tents, and creating scenic vistas, the Bergsbakens are retiring their gorgeous festival. This weekend will be the [...]
The first few buds have arrived with gorgeous precision, all set to help the Bergsbaken family prepare for one of the best Sunflower Festival in all the land. The rest of the sunflowers will bloom exactly on time for the Eighth Annual Sunflower Fest, which takes place this weekend, July 28, 29 and 30, at [...]
It's hard enough to plant a crop, tend it through fickle weather and harvest at just the right time to maximize the produce. Accomplishing all of that on the exact weekend you've invited more than 50,000 people from across the country to come to a festival you're hosting is nearly impossible. But, the Bergsbakens have [...]
If regions had a flower, I'd like ours to be the sunflower. Friendly, unassuming and resilient, sunflowers meet raging storms with a wink and a Midwestern shoulder shrug. Then, they shake the rain off their petals, straighten their stems and stand tall again. They start each day with enviable cheer, turn their faces toward the [...]
We made the happy discovery that several farms near our cabin are growing sunshine this year, the perfect antidote to 2020. Fields of sunflowers stretch straight to the horizon and reminded me (I apologize for this) of the Brady Bunch classic, It's A Sunshine Day. I think i'll go for a walk outside nowThe summer [...]