Seeking Shelter From The Storm.

When it storms, that is, torrential rain, damaging winds, and/or hail( which is damaging to plants) I move my sunflowers to safe shelter to keep them safe from the storm. I move them under this little shelter seen here which I use for shade in the hot sun when I need to cool off; it's a little roof that's been converted that used to be a porch swing at one time. Now the tallest ones are getting too big and are as high as the roof and pretty soon they won't be able to fit. So far it works well though and I lower the roof so the rain just slides off and protects the flowers  so they can weather the storm and once it passes I bring them back out again. (I have them planted in this huge bucket.)

My lone surviving sunflower last year didn't thrive and do as well as this year's where I got 9 flowers. My guess is maybe it was too sheltered; after all it's siblings got dug up by squirrels and died after I'd transplanted them outside I brought the one lone survivor indoors and protected it fiercely from the outdoor elements, only bringing it outside in the sun while I was outside to watch it, otherwise it resided in the window in the diningroom where it was safe. ....but it was small, stunted, slow to grow and only ever got to a bud and then it died. My guess is maybe it was sheltered too much and never got a chance to bloom, never got a chance to be free, to be out in the wild like it was supposed to be, that living in captivity killed it's spirit and it wasn't able to fully grow and blossom living most of it's life inside when it was meant to be outside.That's how I  feel in life,too; never able to blossom because I never really felt free.

I hope I haven't done the same thing with my kids. I hope in trying to protect them I haven't "sheltered" them so much they ended up harmed, stunted in any way, disadvantaged, unable to properly grow and thrive, to blossom, to be free, etc. growing up the way they did, with us on the run and always having to look over our shoulders because an enemy threatened us wasn't easy on any of us and we had to live very guarded lives for such a long time until the danger was over.My main concern at the time was just keeping them safe and protected, that was my number one priority and much of that meant staying "underground" so to speak and keeping "hidden" and protective, guarded, vigilant,watchful and overly cautious and I wasn't able to let my kids be "free-range" and out of my sight like you normally would and we had identities and secrets to protect and I see it must have been stifling but now I can see the paralell between them and the sunflowers.....and with the next batch I 'set them free" and let go and put them outside and they were able to grow and thrive out in the wild and I hope now when the kids are grown and out on their own in the world that they too can grow and thrive and blossom too, just like the sunflowers this year that were growing big, tall and strong outdoors, unlike the small one last year sheltered indoors.

One of my hubby's brothers finally did tell him about his dad too and so far her seems ok but he likely put it back into his mind and suppressed it like he always does with trauma but at times I know it will break thru. The funeral is next week but I know he won't be able to go like he didn't go to his mother's as he can't handle death or anything to do with it and when my dad died he couldn't go to the funeral; he just dropped me off. Hopefully he'll process it ok and everything will be ok and we won't be in any danger from the fall-out. I also heard back about my lost T-shirt and they said they're looking into it and in the meantime are sending me out another one. Hopefully this time, the third time trying, I will finally get it. I ordered at the end of April and by the time I finally get it (if I ever do) summer will already be over.