Last year at this time Tim & I discovered Buttonwood Farm, and since our niece Bonnie and her two children were in town we decided to take them with us to this amazing place. Waiting in a very long line (above) for farm fresh ice cream – made from the milk of grass-fed cows – was well worth it!
This shagbark hickory tree (above) caught my eye as we were waiting in another very long line for a hayride through the cow pasture and the sunflower field. The ride was bumpy but the tractor stopped every once in a while so we could feed the cows hay and Khari could take pictures of cows (below) to his heart’s content.
At Buttonwood Farm, 14 acres of sunflowers are grown to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Connecticut, a non-profit organization devoted to making wishes possible for children with life-threatening medical conditions. 100% of the $5 donation made when one buys a bouquet of these sunflowers goes directly to the foundation, a worthy cause. In spite of a cool wet spring which has delayed the blooms in the cutting fields, the farm went on with its 11th Annual Sunflowers for Wishes campaign.
Camera back in my hands, above and below are two of my sunflower-with-bee shots! It was fun getting these pictures at eye-level with the blooms. The wagon we were in was high off the ground and the tractor pulled us along into the middle of the field. The driver turned off the engine and let us take pictures and marvel at the sea of sunflowers in every direction. It was interesting to see the many unopened blooms mixed in with the ones all ready for picking.
The photo below was taken by Kia, when she finally got her turn with the camera. The late afternoon ride back to home in our car was very quiet. When Tim looked in the rear-view mirror he found all three of our guests sound asleep. A wonderful day!
Sounds like a beautiful sweet adventure! Cows are amazing and Sunflowers are awesome ! beautifully done!
Thank you, Jeff! And I forgot to mention how perfect the weather was – in the 70s, low humidity, clouds keeping the sun from making us squint…
Barbara – Your photographs always take me away; gracefully I’m plunked down into another space altogether where I get to ponder a bit before returning. Thank you for the virtual adventures 🙂
You’re welcome and I thank you so much, Laurie, for your kind words about my photographs! It’s nice to know that they can take you away for a few moments, and it’s so rewarding finding things of interest to capture on film. 🙂
Ahhh, I am sighing with farmland delight, Barbara…
Visiting local farms is definitely a delightful activity, Kathy…
Beautiful sunflowers! It looks like it was a great outing. 🙂
Thank you, Robin! Your sunflowers shots are beautiful, too! 🙂
Love the shag bark hickory. … What a great name! Jane
From the range map I found online it looks like you don’t have shagbark hickory trees up your way, Jane. Apparently they grow well over 100 feet tall and live for about 350 years. My father remembered collecting the nuts to eat when he was growing up.
Neat! I’ll watch for it when we travel south next time!! Jane
🙂
Boy, that ice cream must be good !
There’s a place in Nova Scotia where they have a Sunflower Maze. Your photos make me want to visit it …
The farm fresh ice cream was exceptionally good, Sybil – I’ve tasted none better! I can just picture a sunflower maze – I hope you go for it. This farm has a corn maze in September.
Yes, we (Dakeyne Farm) are open right now, and they are at their peak.. We would love to share our farm and flowers with you 🙂
Cows and sunflowers and ice cream, oh my! This looks like a place I should visit some day!
It might be worth the trip, Karma! Or a slight detour the next time you’re on your way to the Cape. 🙂
Make sure we take you to Maple View Farm when you come South in the fall. Great ice cream and the best view in the county.
I will, Susan! I’m looking forward to more great ice cream and to seeing those North Carolina fall colors you say rival the ones we have here in New England!
What a lovely place, Barbara! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and pictures. Love that shagbark hickory tree and there is no better sight than a whole field of sunflowers. XO
Thank you, Diane, and you’re welcome, too! 🙂 Next year I think I’m going to climb the hill next to the sunflower field and get a few pictures of the field from above. I tend to favor close-up shots, but a different perspective might be nice… *hugs*
What a great farm to visit!
It certainly was, Tracy!
What a great idea and farm!! It will be a must stop when we travel south to visit cousins nearby. And such beautiful photos!!
Thank you, Jen!! And your Dakeyne Farm looks like a great place to visit, too – we may just show up there one of these days. Love your website: http://www.dakeynefarm.com/
I enjoyed this post very much Barbara – what a fun trip to go to this farm. I wonder if it is like our Calder’s Dairy, which is in my City, but they have the farm out in a rural area and you can take a tour and visit the cows. But no sunflowers. Calder’s is known for its rich ice-cream and strawberry and chocolate milk, so thick the straw doesn’t move. I love the photos of the cow – those big eyes. The sunflower field for Make a Wish Foundation is such a good idea. A fellow blogger went to a sunflower field in Ohio back in the late Summer for a similar cause and it was really gorgeous too – that is what I was hoping to see if I only had not gotten lost. I tried the link for your prior Buttonwood Farm but it did no work for some reason. The shagbark hickory tree is unique I’ve never seen one and was hoping to see one at the refuge last weekend as they mentioned it on the Facebook page some of the things to see along the pier and the trail, but I didn’t find it. I thought aspen and birch trees were the same tree – the white bark looks similar but I had never heard the rustle of the the leaves that make the aspen unique. Thank you for sending me this link Barbara.
Thank you, Linda. Maybe next year you’ll make it to that sunflower field! I find it interesting that your sunflowers bloom in late summer while ours bloom in late July. Growing seasons in different places vary so much. I will try to fix that link, but here is the earlier post: https://www.ingebrita.net/2013/07/cows-sunflowers/
Better luck next time on your shagbark hickory quest! I have a lot of trouble identifying trees, but I keep trying. Your Calder’s Dairy’s ice cream sounds scrumptious — oh how I wish I could still eat ice cream…
This time the link worked flawlessly Barbara. On your older posts, I cannot find a like button, so wanted to tell you that was why I commented only. The sunflowers all facing the sun make for a stunning shot ~ a sea of yellow. I am sorry you can’t enjoy ice cream – no frozen yogurt either I guess. I have not had ice cream in many years – my mom always had frozen yogurt around the house for her heartburn and said it soothed her pain better than ice cream.
Yes, I don’t use the like buttons, but I guess they appear in Reader on recent posts. Not having them seems to cut way down on spam. Unfortunately, the symptoms of my lactose intolerance just kept getting worse over the years and finally I decided it wasn’t worth it any more paying the piper to enjoy even an occasional ice cream…
That’s good to know – I didn’t know that would help as to spam. I get tons of spam – the same question in Spanish and many times a day. It is crazy and I just responded to you on the post about the Halloween Nor’easter and it went to spam as it does not show up I replied after I pushed “send”. That is too bad about the lactose intolerance – I know they have tablets you can take to help with that or special foods, but they are not for everyone. No, it would not be worth it to “cheat” if it is that bad.
Some things just aren’t worth the price one has to pay! 😉
Well I know I left a comment, so it must have gone to SPAM unfortunately.
Well, now my first comment showed up – it is the Halloween season after all.
WordPress has been buggier than usual the past few days…
Yes, I’ve replied a few times and don’t see the arrow that I did so, so went back to double-check on that person’s blog post on their site. It is annoying isn’t it? One time I get here and have 50+ SPAMs in the SPAM filter; tonight I had 6 – go figure.
Very annoying!