In ride entertainment

[AndyK]

I just remembered another entertainment: looking at the crops. It's a professional interest for me. Where I live on the edge of the city we have both arable and horticultural crops. Last year the nearest fields were planted with maize, rapeseed, potatoes, brassicas, salads and some flowers for PYO. A bit further away are wheat, barley, rye, sheep on the dykes and free-range chickens. On my way to work I see maize and sugarbeet on very light sandy soil so good indicators of drought.

Here's one you won't see too often:



(sorry of the blur, it was taken off to the side)

Opium poppies in the Loire area, grown for pharmaceuticals.

A fairly common sight around Hampshire and Dorset.

(Sparsholt, 2021)

[mattheus]

Here's one you won't see too often:



(sorry of the blur, it was taken off to the side)

Opium poppies in the Loire area, grown for pharmaceuticals.

We have them in Oxfordshire too (although a limited number of sites, I think).

What we don't have is huge fields of the bright red ones, like what I (finally) saw SE of Dieppe recently. Gorgeous!

[Jdsk]

Here's one you won't see too often:



(sorry of the blur, it was taken off to the side)

Opium poppies in the Loire area, grown for pharmaceuticals.

We have them in Oxfordshire too (although a limited number of sites, I think).

What we don't have is huge fields of the bright red ones, like what I (finally) saw SE of Dieppe recently. Gorgeous!

I'm expecting a lot more. Demand is massive and supply has been dramatically reduced by the Taliban in Afghanistan, possibly by 95% in the last year.

Jonathan

[plancashire]

Here's one you won't see too often:



(sorry of the blur, it was taken off to the side)

Opium poppies in the Loire area, grown for pharmaceuticals.

We have them in Oxfordshire too (although a limited number of sites, I think).

What we don't have is huge fields of the bright red ones, like what I (finally) saw SE of Dieppe recently. Gorgeous!

Poppies are also grown for the seeds, which are used in baking - more commonly here in Germany than in Britain. I don't know if the poppies would be grown in NW Europe but I suspect not.

The bright red common poppy Papaver rhoeas is an agricultural weed with remarkably long-lived seeds, at least 40 years. If they are ploughed up to the surface and the conditions are right you can see these stunning red swathes. They are nice to look at but you'll harvest less of the crop we eat.

[mjr]

It's interesting that the people who grumbled about me listening to music on a speaker are silent about you lot using opium for ride entertainment!

[cycle tramp]

It's interesting that the people who grumbled about me listening to music on a speaker are silent about you lot using opium for ride entertainment!

Fear and loathing in Loire?
'We had stuffed our panniers full of poppies..... perhaps for some it was too much.... and then we cycled the hell out of there... for suddenly the air was full of giant bats and manta rays, shrieking and swooping in the sun.... 'Holy Sh@% , what are these God damn creatures?' Someone shouted. And then I realised it was me... Then I cycled into a ditch, the world went black and when I woke up, it was next Tuesday, and I was naked in a police cell....
As Hunter S. Thompson never wrote