Poppies in the corn

.."A tropic tide of air with ebb and flow
Bathes all the fields of wheat until they glow
Like flashing seas of green, which toss and beat
Around the vines. The poppies lithe and fleet
Seem running, fiery torchmen, to and fro
To mark the shore.

The farmer does not know
That they are there. He walks with heavy feet,
Counting the bread and wine by autumn’s gain,

But I,—I smile to think that days remain
Perhaps to me in which, though bread be sweet
No more, and red wine warm my blood in vain,
I shall be glad remembering how the fleet,
Lithe poppies ran like torchmen with the wheat"
Helen Hunt Jackson

A walk with cuckoos echoing across the valleys, and skylarks singing sweet and shrill high overhead today - and truly wonderful-smelling wild roses of every colour from magenta to whitestarring the hedgerows.

But the poppies were the best!