Poppies, a versatile symbol

What's that beautiful red flower, you ask? It's a poppy! The vibrant red poppy is unmistakable.

Poppies are used as a symbol of sleep and death: Sleep because the opium extracted from them is a sedative, and death because of the common blood-red colour of the red poppy in particular. But they're most famous because of their association with wartime remembrance.

And shockingly enough, I moved to a new house and to my delight and surprise, two poppies bloomed in my back garden this year. This is a garden I neither planted nor maintained.

My new novel about wartime remembrance called Rooted and Remembered is coming out in a few weeks. And with poppies all around, I shall always remember.