Wild sunflowers

About a month ago, the first of the wild sunflowers began to bloom. Like their cultivated cousins, these perennials get very tall, sometimes topping eight feet or more. But that's where any similarity, beyond the sun-capturing yellow color, ends. The wild sunflowers are slender and bear relatively small flowers, while their garden and farm relatives are highly in-bred Helianthus on steroids. I've been taking pictures of this clump every day since they started opening their blossoms, so I have a record of their progress from beginning until, well, not quite their end. That, I fear, will come soon enough. Each time I walk by, there are now fewer and fewer flowers on the tall stalks. Soon enough, the petals will be gone, and there'll be no sunny delights for my eyes. I hope this embodiment of summer hangs on a little longer. I'm not quite ready for the sunflowers—and the growing season—to call it quits.