Sunflower summer

Just love sunflowers! And in the Indre et Loire region, where we live, they are everywhere.
I hadn't appreciated there were different sizes of flower heads until we came here. The ones in the photo are relatively small, but you can see them between 20 & 22 cms or for the none metric savvy among you around 8/9" which is pretty big.  Sunflowers always make me smile. I think they are one of the most cheerful looking flowers around. The trouble is the season is over so quickly. Then there's nothing quite as depressing as a field of dead sunflowers, all drooping over with a ghastly greyish-green tinge where the once vibrant yellow had been. The good thing is they'll be back next year.

The sunflowers here were taken in a village just on the other side of the river called La Roche-Clermault. We drive over usually once a week, to buy our goat's cheese from a family owned and run business called Vazereau. www.levazereau.fr

Yes it would be simpler to go to a supermarket (all of them stock Vazereau's cheeses) as it involves driving over specially. But I wouldn't miss it for anything.There's such pleasure in going directly to the producer and getting to know them, having a chat, trying out new flavours. And of course meeting the goats! There are 500 in all. Once a year Vazereau has a porte-ouverte, which means that the farm and the cheese production areas are open to the public. We've been twice now. They are always well supported and organised. The goats are immaculate and clearly well looked after. Typically a porte-ouverte is a bit of a party. So there is wine as well as tastings of cheese available, which you can buy from the Vazereau farmshop. The cheeses I should add are just glorious. By the way 06013 sends his meilleurs voeux to all!