poppies

i've always loved poppies, but not the plant - the flowers last a week, sometimes two, and the rest of the year you have a scruffy-looking plant that takes up a significant amount of space.

i planted red poppies in a corner of our yard when i was pregnant with evyn. the site worked out well - sandwiched between other plantings, so when the flowers are spent, it's not particularly visible.

when evyn was 2 years old, she saw the poppies blooming and went nuts for them. she would run out into the yard every day to count the blooms.

every year since, it's kind of been "our thing" to see how many poppy flowers appeared. this year's count: 18. almost double that of last year.