Thursday 6 August 2015

Hectic.

A couple of hectic days have made for difficulty in fitting in blogging.   They have been necessary but boring jobs (going through last year's books with the accountant was not exactly my favourite way of spending a morning).   The farmer and I have bought a new all singing, all dancing landline telephone - and I have spent quite a few frustrating hours plumbing various facilities into it.   Add to this the farmer is himself frustrated as he is desperate to begin haymaking but there needs to be at least four consecutive fine (hopefully sunny and breezy) days to do this.   Today is now breezy, sunny and fine - so he is waiting for the weather forecast in a few minutes with bated breath.

When I was a child I used to love harvest time on my uncle's farm.  He farmed in the old-fashioned way with horses and binders; stacking the crop in stooks to be carted away to the farmyard for threshing later on.  But my favourite thing of all was looking around for wild flowers; I was a great wild-flower collector, noting them all down in little note books.

One of the most common in corn fields was the scarlet pimpernel, which these days seems to have completely disappeared from our fields and verges.   But today I saw one!

I had gone to our Medical Centre to pick up my prescription and as I was getting back into my car, there at my feet, growing at the foot of a rowan tree was a tiny scarlet pimpernel.  I was so pleased to see my old friend that I got out of the car and photographed it.  Several people gave me funny looks - after all they probably considered it to be a weed.  But to me it was a lovely reminder of a
very happy childhood.
 

13 comments:

angryparsnip said...

What a beautiful photo, I have never seen a real Scarlet Pimpernel.
What a shame the flower has died out.
Of course I am not saying this right but a weed is just a flower plant growing were it shouldn't ?

cheers, parsnip

The History Anorak said...

They seek it here, they seek it there....... (Sorry - couldn't resist!)
Such a shy little flower, but beautiful.

Rachel Phillips said...

It is lovely to find a flower like this that means so much, I know the feeling, it is like it was meant to happen. We have a lot of the scarlet pimpernel here on the arable land and it is regarded as a weed, but I love to see them coming up around the edges of the fields.

Joanne Noragon said...

And a pretty sight to those of us who only know the legend of the daring hero of the French Revolution.

thelma said...

It is always a pleasure to come on something unexpected and it is a pretty flower. One thing I never see round now is coltsfoot something I remember from childhood to.

donna baker said...

Love that story. Always thought it was a book.

Gwil W said...

It's not a weed. It's a lovely flower. A weed is only a flower in the wrong place.

Cro Magnon said...

When I was youngish I used to join up with friends at harvest time to shoot rabbits. Often the farmers would start mowing round the sides of the fields and work their way slowly to the middle; any rabbits etc would end up in a small area then all try to escape at once. Cro and friends were all ready with our 4.10's hoping for something to take home. I was always a useless shot.

Midmarsh John said...

Lovely little flower. I agree with angryparsnip - a weed is a just a plant growing in the wrong place.

Frugal in Derbyshire said...

I'm with you re. the pimpernel, a lovely little flower. Reading Thelma's comment I realised that I haven't seen any coltsfoot for some time now.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thanks for calling in everyone. Nice replies.

Frances said...

Hoping that your new landline phone is now completely operational. And that the preferred weather has continued to please the Farmer.

Thank you so much for the fine photograph of the elusive scarlet pimpernel. I am just about certain that I have never seen one myself. It's a lovely bloom!

xo

thousandflower said...

We had scarlet pimpernel show up in our gardens last year. I have no idea where it came from and it took quiet a bit of sleuthing to figure out what it was. Interestingly it hasn't reappeared this year. Maybe our ongoing drought has something to do with that?