The Opening of a Sunflower ...

I took this series of photos over the last week, to show the opening of this self-sown sunflower in one of the pots in my yard.
My friend thought it was an artichoke, and it sure did have that look about it ...

So I thought it might be interesting to follow a sequence, showing the opening of this lovely flower.
As I write, it's completely open now, and the seeds would be growing and ripening, but this will take quite a while. They won't be ripe till late Autumn, and it's now only mid-February.

I remember when I was a kid, husking the sunflowers my Pop grew, for his galah, Joey. He would grow the sunflowers and we would rub out the ripe seeds, my brother and I.
And that would be Joey's mainstay for the coming year! He also ate arrowroot biscuits and gnawed on chop bones, that bird! I've always had my suspicions about him!
But Pop loved him dearly and he lived to a ripe old age. Sad life, a bird in a cage ... but Joey was let out every day and used to side-step along the tin fence at the side of Pop's, terrorising all who ventured down the lane! Many a time we only got so far and had to scream for help as the little winged bandit bailed us up turning into the gate!

This is a female Galah ~ you can tell by the eye ... the females have a redder eye ... same with a lot of Australian birds!

My 'Artichoke'!

It's a single flower, and you can get doubles, and others with many, many layers of petals ... and lots of colours too, but I like mine! I've become very attached to my little artichoke over the last week!