Last poppy

I noticed the bud yesterday and today the flower  was open, buffeted by the wind which has been considerable.

It's remarkable to see a poppy in November that isn't red.

For anyone interested.... I decided to check out the history of remembrance poppies and discovered that it was an American woman, Moina Michael,  who had the original notion of wearing a poppy symbol in memory of the WW1 dead (inspired by the poem In Flanders Field) but it was a  French woman Anna Guérin who took the idea and ran with it. Her objective was to  provide financial support  for bereft families in the areas of France that had been devastated by WW1 battles. Widows and orphans were paid to make silk or cotton  poppies and additional funds raised were used to establish homes and holiday camps for unsupported children. The idea was adopted in Britain and  first official Remembrance Day  took place in1921, raising funds for veterans and their families. The custom spread to countries of the British commonwealth around the world.

Mme Guerin would surely be surprised to find that the poppy symbol has been tarnished by controversy regarding the obligatory/excessive wearing of Remembrance Day poppies by people in the public eye (in politics, sports and the media) and by revelations that the plastic element in the badge was made by prison labour - and is only recyclable via Sainsbury's supermarkets (of which my nearest is 30 miles away.)