Our Poppy pictures.

Since the Taliban have stopped opium production in Afghanistan we have had to grow our own and we thought it best to hide the poppies in plain sight. This is our front door taken earlier today.



This is the view from the house.



But seriously, I have been saving the seeds for several years and have been scattering them through the neighbourhood whilst walking the dog. It has been a hit and miss affair as very few come up until the conditions are right. These appeared on our doorstep and we will leave them until the seed heads are ready despite the complaints from the postman and various neighbours. Most of the locals are keen on gardening but there is a minority that get the toxic weed killer out the minute spring arrives or mow the lawn as soon as a daisy appears above ground. Over the weekend I watched with dismay as a new arrival to the town cut down a hedge in his front garden that has been there for at least the ten years that we have lived here. It was home for dozens of sparrows who nested in it year after year. His hedge, his choice but it is one less habitat in an already depleted environment.

Guerilla gardening has now become my favourite way of sticking two fingers up to the strimmer brigade and the Agent Orange Philistines.

 

I was so busy being taken with the orange ones t’other day, that I failed to notice the other poppies behind them.

 

These are growing further along on the roadside itself.

 

Glad you don't live round my way.
Postmen refuse to deliver homeowner's letters because garden is 'too overgrown' | Daily Mail Online

 

Although I'm not a fan of No Mow May, the one wonderful consequence of this policy has been the amount of wild poppies emerging from our pavements and roadways.

 

One week after posting my original photograph things have moved on and nearly every head is in bloom. The lower leaves are looking the worse for wear due to the constant supply of dog wee coming their way.

 

Indeed, but there do seem to be fewer such crops nowadays, unless they are being tucked away a little bit more. Perhaps better hedged, which is no bad thing in itself.

 

Last year there was a field full of similar poppies between Craven Arms and Ludlow, very near to the race course. We were told that it was a commercial crop grown for medicinal purposes. It hasn't been replanted this year.

 

Ted, our dog, woke us up during the early hours of the morning with his barking which was unusual as he rarely barks at night. I opened the front door this morning to find that someone has pulled six seed heads off our poppies. I do not think that it was mindless vandalism as there are no seed heads scattered about the pavement. I think that they were deliberately taken by one of the many sensation seekers in the town. It rather looks as if we have a turf war on our hands and that I am going to have to sit on the doorstep all night with my jezail.

 

Stiil green, or dried/brown/rattley?

The miscreants are either playing the long game (dried/brown/rattley) or hopefully about to be sorely disappointed if they've taken them "green" (as they'll only "produce milk" if scored/cut when green and still attached to the living plant stem). They burn well (for destruction purposes) in either state, with the right accelerant

Bleedin' vandals either way, and I do so hope of the disappointed variety!

Good luck with all Simon, take care of yourself out there.

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

 

Still green and I wanted them for their seeds so I can spread them about the Shropshire country side. We have plants outside the house to provide pollen for the insects and the bees have been all over these poppies. A couple of years ago I saw my first ever humming bird moth outside the front door on flowers that Mandy had planted. We are now seeing them every year. That said, it has been a very bad year for butterflies.

All the best,

Simon.

 

I’m a blunderbuss man myself.

 

On the chalk

 

Poppies in the crops

 

Crochet poppies already being displayed in Ripon, North Yorkshire 13 October.

 

Lovely news story from Skegness, BBC

Skegness Remembrance Day poppy display aims to triple in size

 

Absolutely beautiful poppy display in a small village to brighten up a very dreary Sunday.
Great Ayton, North Yorkshire. Christ Church.