the sunflower quest (success)

The sunflower quest was a success! My quest to find some large and vast sunflower fields while I was in Europe came to reality. My quest to be surrounded by the beauty, solidness and strength of the sunflower was satisfied mostly in Italy.

I had opportunities to walk through fields that had hundreds upon thousands of sunflowers. It was breathtaking!

I stood in fields where the sunflowers were much taller than I was, and where the flower was larger than my head. It was almost overwhelming!

In one field all the sunflowers were so much taller than me that when I was deep in the field, I saw nothing but the flowers. I could not see the edge of the field, thus almost giving me a feeling as if I was lost and would not be able to find my way out.

I even bought a yellow skirt, and had my fingernails and toenails painted with sunflowers for one of my quests. (Well, ok, maybe I went a bit too far on that one…) Oh, and don’t forget about that tattoo on my ankle…

A few times just traveling on a train through the Italian countryside, I would spot a large yellow blur in the distance as we whizzed by a sunflower field. That certainly brightened my travels!

I learned the word for sunflower in Italian – “girasole.” And in the museums, I even had successful quests of admiring paintings of sunflowers by artists such as Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh. My mouse pad is even one of Van Gogh’s paintings.

I suppose my love for sunflowers will continue, whether I am traveling and on sunflower quests, or whether I am at home collecting things that are decorated with sunflowers.

Oh, that sunflower t-shirt in my previous blog was purchased on one of the Greek islands during that same Europe trip.

“I am working with the enthusiasm of a man from Marseilles eating bouillabaisse, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to you because I am busy painting huge sunflowers.” – Vincent Van Gogh, letter to his brother Theo

Sweet Travels!

Photos by Debby or friends of Debby