Burnside Farms: Summer of Sunflowers, Nokesville, Virginia
This is not a hike or a run or anything athletic at all, but it is so lovely that it deserves to be kept in my chamber of memories here and I think you should go there too…next year. Each summer, Nokesville, Virginia’s Burnside Farms holds their Summer of Sunflowers festival for approximately a month. It is lovely.
I learned about it because it popped up on my social media feed. I needed a day of “not chasing goals or taking care of responsibilities,” is what I said to Barbarian Scientist. And I have been missing my friends very much, so that fact that The Curious Therapist is nearly obsessed with sunflowers pushed me toward using this precious time here. On 70 acres covered in sunflowers.
I think (I really don’t remember, but it was not a lot) it cost $30 for me to have a self guided tour and to also collect a dozen sunflowers of my choice. The staff working at the barn equipped me with a large basket and some shears and said that as I walked around the grounds I could pick my favorite flowers. It sounds really generous, but…am I the only one that finds it strange to be like, “Oh, I love THIS! Let me kill it now.”
The farm has this sweet tractor and trailer and the most adorable young lady driving it, taking people around the farm if they want. The property has benches throughout and an enormous swing for photo opportunities.
I never knew there were so many kinds of sunflowers. Chocolate, strawberry, Teddy Bear, and more. So many more. There are 67 species of sunflowers.
Sunflowers face the sun. All of them. Every time. It is so creepy and awesome.
The above photo is my favorite. If I were a flower, maybe this is what I would look like. Fighting to open up. Or maybe fighting to stay closed. Perhaps both. And if this flower is still so stunningly beautiful even if it is not like the rest, maybe I can be, too.
