I feel like the king in the Firebird

[philena]

Do you know the story? A king (with three sons, of course), has a magic tree in his courtyard that every day flowers, buds, and grows one special apple, which ripens overnight and is ready to be eaten the next morning. But every night something comes and takes the apple, and so the king has his sons sit in the garden and keep watch to see what it is. The story goes on from there, but my similarity doesn't.

Daniel and I have some poppies growing in our garden. We recognized them by the leaves last August when we moved in, and have been waiting with bated breath while they grew buds, and finally one bud did become a poppy. And instead of being the magnificent orange of the standard poppy in these here parts, which look like this:



We got this!




This is very, very unusual. Golden poppies are everywhere in Berkeley this time of year, but I've only once or twice seen red ones. And, apparently, as well as being incredibly beautiful, red poppies also taste good. The one pictured above lasted a day and a half, and then disappeared. The next one that bloomed didn't even make it to the afternoon before it, too, disappeared. The buds as well have been sheared off from the stems. I sprinkled pest repellent on the plant to no avail. I put a gopher cage over it, which worked for a day or two, and two lovely poppies bloomed underneath. Then yesterday evening Daniel and I came home to find the cage dislodged and the two poppies eaten.

As of today, we've had three more bloom, but I doubt they'll last the night. I hope to get up early tomorrow morning and take pictures when they open, because they are truly lovely.

Edit: next morning They lived! And four more have either opened or are opening even as I type!

Comments

[summercomfort]

Which is describing the poppies, the thief, and what you should do to the thief.

[philena.livejournal.com]

Agreed. With a big thorny stick.