I don't like to brag, but look at the size of my sunflower!

I'm a few weeks into growing the flower as part of a World War One centenary project organised by Stockton Borough Council.

Stockton had 1,245 local soldiers who gave their lives in the Great War and sunflowers are being grown in memory of each of them before being brought together in August for a "memory garden" in the the parish gardens.

My sunflower is being grown in memory of Private John Thomas Matthews and I'm grateful to reader John Husband who has done some brilliant research for me about my soldier's life.

More details about what John discovered will feature in a blog in the near future. Suffice for now to say thanks to him - and to look forward to my sunflower's next growth spurt.

The Northern Echo: