Red poppies

Well, back inside today doing a spot of tidying up and re-organising my work space - commonly known as procrastination! - since the sun has decided to disappear and the clouds are making everything look grey and cool. Not summer at all! So to remind me of the sunshine, I thought I would show you these lovely red poppies that appeared in the garden this year. A neighbour down the road has some ginormous poppies in their front garden and I can only think the wind has kindly blown some seeds our way to give us these beauties. We've had so much wind and rain these last few days though, I was frightened the petals would be blown off before I could get out there with my camera. But I was lucky:)

Three out so far and loads of buds waiting for some more sunshine to bloom. One of these would fill the palm of your hand easily and mmmmm, the colours! I feel a purpley-red yarn begging to be dyed just looking at the centre detail and the intensity of that red. Now, what could I use that for???? Mind is whirring with possibilities!

I thought I'd wander around the garden to see what else has come out in bloom over the last week. Mostly the bright orange lilies which are settling in their new home very well this year and have many more flowers waiting to open too. Funny thing about these lilies. I split the overlarge original plant last year and planted two new plants further up the garden. This one above has kept the strong orange colour but has a much more complex flower centre - a double lily even, a flower within the flower.

You can see it better in this close-up. But the second plant has done something strange. It is a much simpler bell shaped lily with paler colouring and distinctive markings. Both the same plant, honest! It must be the soil or that one gets less sun than the other? But it's really interesting how plants do this - fascinating.

Now I just have to wait for the mother plant to flower now to see which genes the children have inherited :))

Well, back to tidying and actually getting some work done. Quite a few things to show you on the needles at the moment too so back soon with something stripey.... :)