Poppies actually pop! ...Week 43

Memorial Day, purple doors & a truck full of flowers

It’s Memorial Day weekend and I just had an exchange with my friend Belinda Casas about her poppies. Check out her photos.

Poppies are hairy and scary pre-bloom. And guess what? B says they pop when they bloom!

Why poppies? Of course, the California poppy is our state flower. That’s the orange one. But also Belinda reminded me of the poppy poem, In Flanders Fields — a war time poem that’s apropos for this Memorial weekend when we honor fallen veterans.

In Flanders Fields

    In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow

         Between the crosses, row on row, 

       That mark our place; and in the sky

       The larks, still bravely singing, fly

    Scarce heard amid the guns below.

    We are the dead. Short days ago 

    We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

       Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

                              In Flanders fields.

    Take up our quarrel with the foe:

    To you from failing hands we throw

       The torch; be yours to hold it high.

       If ye break faith with us who die

    We shall not sleep, though poppies grow.

In fact, when I searched “Memorial Day” some cute orange poppies appeared at the bottom of the screen. But Belinda says the orange ones aren’t actually Flanders fields poppies. Oh well. The sentiment is there.

Anyhow, I had a smoothie recipe for you and a My Friend Mary. But I’ll do that next week. Instead, why not a couple of more photos?

Sometimes you look over and, inexplicably, there's a purple door by the roadside. Then you have the pleasure of following a truck full of beautiful flowers most of the way home.