Saturday, July 07, 2012

lights 2 scarlet pimpernel curtain


Light at one end and lights at the other end of the tunnel outside Tunbridge Wells Station.

Scarlet pimpernel is almost the first flower of which I learnt the name. I remember being told that if it closed its small, bright red petals it would rain.  In some parts of the country it is known as sheperds' weather glass.This year, with its creeping habit,  it is rampant among the potatoes in the vegetable garden. And it rains every day. I wonder that it opens at all, but it does.  It seems on the whole to be doing better than the potatoes which are already showing signs of blight.  In fact very little else seems to be intruding in the potato rows. If weeds are plants growing where they shouldn't, scarlet pimpernel is I suppose a weed, except that I refuse to designate as such. It was Baroness Orczy who adopted the flower as the cover name of her hero Sir Percy Blakeney in her historical romances describing his exploits rescuing of victims of The French Revolution from the guillotine. No weed.

In a room  seen through an open window a curtain sways and billows in  a dance without rhythm.

5 comments:

CC said...

Don't think I mentioned how refreshing your Gull on the water photo is, especially
right now when its 100 degrees F.

Roderick Robinson said...

But played by Leslie Howard who I fear I always regarded as a weed. Think Ashley in Gone With The Wind.

Lucy said...

Here they designate it as red chickweed, a thing I can't accept; chickweed (muron, in French) truly is a weed. I don't think it's really anything to do with Sir Percy Blakeney and a refusal on the part of la République in any way to ennoble the plant, but sometimes I wonder...

Unknown said...

CC Lucky you. It's still winter. Here. And wet. Good weather for gulls.

Unknown said...
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