A fairly common sight around Hampshire and Dorset. (Sparsholt, 2021)Audax67 wrote: ↑22 Jan 2024, 10:25amHere's one you won't see too often:plancashire wrote: ↑21 Jan 2024, 11:07pm 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.
(sorry of the blur, it was taken off to the side)
Opium poppies in the Loire area, grown for pharmaceuticals.
In ride entertainment
Re: In ride entertainment
Re: In ride entertainment
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!
Re: In ride entertainment
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
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Re: In ride entertainment
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.
I am NOT a cyclist. I enjoy riding a bike for utility, commuting, fitness and touring on tout terrain Rohloff, Brompton M3 and Wester Ross 354 plus a Burley Travoy trailer.
Re: In ride entertainment
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!
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
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Re: In 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