Hello - five blooming poppies. Not enough to ensure their survival but a start. In the two minutes I pointed the camera at this one it was visited by a small unknown wasp, an unknown insect and an unknown fly.There is more to pollination than the bees. One of the petals, as fragile as the finest tissue paper, dropped to the ground. Later, I found the other three leading to my door, the third on the step.
The only species of African poppy has all but disappeared from Knysna. What an amazing symbol it is of our ignorance and of the fragility of the natural world. It’s also a symbol of the fragility of the institutions that hold our ideals. We bloom in prosperity with little thought of the hundreds of bloody years that accompanied the evolution of democracy and capitalism and no thought of the years to come. Democracy is not a state achieved but one that requires hard work.
