Sunflowers are good for the soul

In my early twenties while I was living in George, South Africa and years later when I was living in London and visiting home annually, I used to visit the surrounding towns with my best friend Amile and the two of us would search for coffee shops where we would drink one cup of coffee after another, devour large slices of cake and talk for hours about anything and everything. We were young care-free and happy, very very happy. Anyway, we found this tiny corrugated iron house squeezed in between a large shop and an industrial warehouse in a side street of Oudtshoorn on one of our days out. The house was painted mustard, it had a tiny veranda that ran the length of the front of the house and a plain garden of grass that was browned by the African sun and a couple of rows of large bright sunflowers in front of the veranda.

It was and still is one of my favourite houses ever, I swore I would buy it one day. It was clear that the owners were not wealthy but it was clear for the whole town to see that it was the jolliest house in the whole of Oudtshoorn and the owners must surely have been the happiest people in town. (I have an old photograph somewhere that I will post when I find it)

So every time I see a sunflower it takes me straight back to that sunny day, strolling barefoot down that street when I spotted that house for the first time. They make me smile - on my face and in my heart.

Sunflowers are good for the soul x