Poppies!

I am a nut for poppies. Few things send me over the edge like 'em. It's also one of my favorite floral motifs in decorative arts (the Art Nouveau artists did them especially well), and I aspire to amass a big (though picky) collection over my life. I don't think I could ever get enough of them. It's kind of embarrassing, but I can't help myself!

So when potter and blogger Mary Anne Davis posted this picture of the poppies growing around her house in Spencertown, NY, it swept me away! And I just had to share it with you all.

Nothing else today. These gorgeous poppies are more than enough...

[Later]

Well, why not more? I'm actually home taking a day off today (finally!), and I found myself searching for images of poppies on the web after I posted above. Here are some of what I found:

Poppies beneath the Eiffel Tower, found here.

Reminds me of the field of poppies in the Loire Valley of France where the vermillion flowers first stole my heart. These are in Marseille.

I saw this, Coquelicots à Argenteuil painted by Claude Monet in 1873, at the Musee D'Orsay during my first visit to Paris when I was 17. It sparked instant Impressionism Fever that lingered well into college. (I even had a barrette with a printed image of this glued on it. Oy.) But whatever, who doesn't love this paiting?

In 1996, my Mom and I took a trip to Italy together. We rented a car and drove around Tuscany and Umbria, and saw lots of wild poppies like these growing along the stone bankings along the hill roads. I took some wonderful photographs of them (though this one's from this site). Maybe I'll be inspired to dig out all my poppy photographs and put them together sometime...

Found this fabulous cover of a volume of The Wizard of Oz illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger while doing an image search for a still of the poppy field scene from the movie. I wonder if there's a poppy blog out there... If not, I just might start one -- there are fantastic images out there!

Check out these poppy costumes from a Illinois high school production of the Wizard of Oz! Ok, there's definitely a blog idea here...

Evidently, there's a guy in California who makes handmade sculptural urinals. Wow. I can't believe it either. Do we need these at Greenjeans? (Click here for his site.) (Though on an aesthetic note, I am not as large a fan of the California poppy. It's nice but it's not the same.)

Thinking so much about poppies reminds me of when I was a kid the old men of the town would go around once a year and sell paper poppies to raise money for the VFW. (Do they still do this? Let's see... It's actually the American Legion... and they're made by disabled veterans. Who knew?) According to Wikipedia, the red poppy has to do with Rememberance Day (est. by King George V in 1919, we call it Memorial Day) where it's a symbol of honor to those who have fallen in war. (Read this haunting poem called "In Flanders Fields.") Huh. Imagine a public display of one poppy for each fallen soldier since 9/11 planted in the middle of the National Mall... Woulda been a good Memorial Day display... (Oh weird, The Stars and Stripes Forever just started playing on WNYC. Freaky!)

But growing in a field they're the best!

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