I love poppies along with much of the population and this year has been amazing for these stunning flowers that generally appear in June. This year they were early and are still persisting on disturbed ground including road verges. Around Peterborough there have been a number of whole fields full of nothing but poppies as far as the eye can see. Our most poignant thoughts around poppies are their association with the World War I battlefields where the disturbance of the ground by war led to huge swathes of red dominating the landscape. This is one of the reasons why the poppy represents remembrance of war dead and of course it is red-the colour of our spilt blood!
I have had many years where I have not taken many photographs for pleasure but this year the poppy has led me back to the path of recording beautiful moments and some of my photos are shown below including my selfie when I took the whole family including Poppy the dog to experience a field of poppies. My first present from my husband when we first met was a pressed Poppy from the Somme-he is an expert on the history of WWI and subsequently I have painted him a painting entitled ‘THE SOMME’.
Poppies are one of my favourite flowers…I have always loved the brightness of red as a colour as it fits with my extrovert nature but also for their fragileness as they flutter in even a light breeze. Poppies were more common in times gone past as farmland weeds where soil had been disturbed by ploughing alongside other flowers making farmland colourful and great for insects and therefore birds and other creatures.
Recently I have donated 2 Poppy meadow paintings to charity auctions-one of which now sits on the bedroom wall of a soldier who was very seriously injured on duty in Afghanistan and the other for the Grenadier Guards charity. What a great way for poppies and me to make the lives of others better!
