Sunlight, camera... action!

It seems like only yesterday I was craving a bit more action in the garden. And after a cloudy start to the day Huey puffed away the gloom and replaced it with clear morning sun. And the poppies said "that's good enough for me". Sunlight, camera... action! The poppies have popped.

Hello there, I'm from Iceland and I'm not a volcano.

This is the scene which caught my eye from the back door. Action at last!

What the hell, let's celebrate, another close-up of the season's first. But wait on, what's that I see flat on the ground in the poppy patch? A bright orange smudge.

I wasn't there to see who popped out first, but this outrageously orange bloom was at the end of a ludicrously long stem which just didn't have the strength to go on. The least I could do was make this one the first cut flower of the poppy season, so inside it came and very welcome it is too.

So all my grumbling paid off. You see, being a boy with a low pain threshold, I firmly subscribe to the view that if you are unwell for any reason, each time you complain about it you get a little bit better. Fortunately for Pam, I rarely ever get sick, otherwise I'd drive her mad putting my theory into practice. But at least I can take the same idea for a spin out in the garden, and see whether grumbling really does make poppies flower. On today's evidence, there just might be something in that theory.