Here they are.The lovely poppy seed poppy.
Every year I await their bloom, and this year the huge plants that self seeded from last year have burst open in a riot of crimson, burgundy, and pink. An Art Nouveau dream.
They are sown by the wind, scattered by my wanderings through the garden. This year they are over 4 feet high, the nodding heads heavy, the ruffled leaves like the skirts of Belle Epoch ladies.
I can't help but think of them as fancy women from a late Victorian Paris nightclub, can-can on the stage, absinthe in their glasses.
In the late summer harvest the seeds for baking, sprinkled on Ukrainian braid, baked in sweet poppyseed cake. Their culinary uses tie me to the centuries of Slavic women who used them as medicine, in cooking and for sacred offerings.
And I love them for their beauty.
4 comments:
Hey I've found your link again - I have a feeling that blogger and wordpress work their rivalry!
Not too sure if the comment will be posted but will try...
The poppies in France were fantastic - fields of them everywhere - you can see why they were referred to as fields of blood after the 2nd world war, they really do look extraordinary from an plane.
Well here goes, I'll see if this is published.
It worked!
Hey there Paula! Nice to hear from you.
Amazing about the poppies in France! I have some of those field poppies growing in the garden beds, but this last few weeks of cold weather has delayed them opening. My grandmother called them "Flanders Poppies" referring to the Great War.
I would like to see them for myself one of these summers.
I thought about getting a Wordpress blog too, but I can barely keep up with this one!
I know - I have to be really disciplined and when work overtakes, like this week, well, I just want to flop!
Well, when you come over on your European tour you'll be able to!
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