November - a time of and for Remembrance...

Onward progresses the season of Autumn; through days of mists, fruitful harvests, Hallowe'en & Bonfire Night. Leaves continue in their glorious colour transformations before their final descend: reminding us of that special time of remembrance at 11am on the 11th of  Novemeber...

Countrylife's article by Jack Watkins is well worth a read. It was the field surgeon John McCrae who penned those famous lines, whilst attending the wounded soldiers in the aftermath of the 2nd Battle of Ypres;

"In Flanders fields the poppies blow                             Between the crosses row on row..."

Though not native to Britain the common poppy is thought to have first arrived as seeds within the corn-crop imports of Iron Age farmers 5,000 years ago.

Poppy seeds germinate on disturbed soil, typically after ploughing or tilling, which is why it thrived on the battlefields of the Western Front during WWI.

"Poppies produce 15,000 - 20,000 seeds each, which can survive for almost a century".

Assyrians called poppies "the daughters of the field"

and the Roman godess of food plants, Ceres, wore a wreath of them.

This is an interesting book about memories and

mindfulness through the gardening calendar 

- a great stocking filler perhaps?