opium poppy seed heads from my garden allotment, courtesy of the neighbouring plot, from where they have spread. i've been cutting them before they go to seed so they don't fill the place up. wouldn't mind if they were white, my favourite, but that particular level of magenta garishness with violet spots just isn't in my scheme of things. let's see if the poppies i actually sowed will ever make it this year... they are dark purple and ruffly like peonies. that's already quite extravagant for me.
we are having strange weather, hot and humid to the point where it's so misty it's kind of not hot anymore. i was taking my cardigan off and putting it back on again the whole time while picking redcurrants today. managed to burn my cheeks, so i am looking very glowing but feeling less than vigorous, still.
summer is a time for reading, if any, and the library has been very good to me lately. i've resorted to reading the flavia de luce mysteries as translations, since i never bought them in english as my own birthday gift last year. i hear there's to be a tv series and i'm cautiously looking forward to seeing it one day. awaiting reading, under a cake dome to protect it from the teeth of a certain rodent, is the autobiography of cheeta, the hollywood chimpanzee.
sysi looks like he might have been a silent film star in a past life. he is one handsome, cuddly bear, although he still hasn't become the lap rat i am hoping for. next week he will turn ten months old. i watched some videos from when the rats were younger, and even sysi was so small, although he was a big hunk even then... but savu was just a wee mouse! sysi weighs about 750 grams now and savu is somewhere between 630 and 640 grams. it's going to be a challenge to keep sysi from getting fat once he becomes a lazy old man. so far there's been enough fuss each day to keep him reasonably lean, but i know i should play with them both more. i should also keep moving more, but that's a whole another story.
