Kathy Erkkila Ptaszek exclaimed that these beauties keep popping open, maybe that’s how they got their name. Poppies are such beautiful flowers and it seems the reddish-orange variety are more common. We have a few in our yard, but nothing like this bunch here. Kathy said the salmon colored ones are her favorite and I’m leaning that same way after seeing them close-up in her photo. The red poppies are a remembrance for fallen soldiers. You often see replicas of them being handed out for a donation to Veteran organizations. They are also the primary source of opium and were the flowers in the Wizard of Oz that put Dorothy to sleep in the field, as the scent of them makes you sleepy, so the story goes.

Don’t you fall asleep now, because Alexis Dahl has a lesson for us on “Henry Ford’s “Utopian” Towns – Alberta, Michigan. The lead-in to her video states: “When Henry Ford needed wood and iron ore, he turned to Michigan's Upper Peninsula — and ended up buying and building entire towns in the process. This is the story of Alberta and of Henry Ford's Northern Michigan Operations. Special thanks to Dave Stimac and Bob Kreipke for their contributions to this video!”

So beautiful! I absolutely love poppies! At
our house in Minnesota, we had the salmon
ones. I loved them. Here we have the red
ones. I also love them, lol. We don't have a
lot yet because they got moved when we built
the garage. But we had to save them and they
did OK. But I'd really enjoy having as many
as Kathy. Now it's daisy time and they're
just popping up everywhere. I transplanted
them from the neighbor because they are at
their cabin in the summer and so aren't
around to enjoy them. I miss them not being
around but I do enjoy their daisies ;-)

Sweet pix and an interesting video of a place that I passed by many
times on my way UP and down.

Gorgeous pics. I had a neighbor way back when, who
had the most gorgeous flower gardens anyone ever
saw. Wow.

I love Alexis's vids....you learn so much!

Be careful with fireworks~!

https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/commen
ts/14mab8v/742022_firework_fails_to_launch_results_
in_a/

Donna, Here's a workable link
Fireworks

All you Poppy growers aren't starting a heroin cartel now, are you?

Always enjoy the videos from Alexis.

Regarding Donna's very germane post about home fireworks dangers...
I've long said that catastrophes generally happen when more than one thing goes wrong, even if it's not just plain stupidity to blame it's usually due to a lack of proper preparation or a loss of situational awareness.

In this example:
1) the people in charge of setting them off are too young.
2) The storage of the fireworks is way too close to the launching area.
3) The crowd is too close to launching area.
Attention to either item 2 or 3 resolves the problem.

Years ago we set off some works in the neighborhood. A fairly small launcher with multiple tubes, mounted to a (too small) wooden block tipped over all on it's own as they shot horizontally, sending explosive reports in all directions. One went into an open garage exploding underneath a car. No one hurt, no fires, no damage. Literally dodged a bullet that day.

After further review, I retract #1.
They are adults, so stupidity prevails.

D.A. many years ago when our granddaughter
was around 5, one of our sons brought
fireworks to the house for the 4th. They
were all so excited, (but we weren't).
Anyway, my son proceeded to allow his 8 year
old step son to shoot off bottle rockets.
My granddaughter nearly lost an eye. We were
not outside at the time. When we found out,
we were so upset. No more fireworks were
allowed to be shot off (common sense), much
to the dismay of our grandson. Our
granddaughter was scarred, but she still had
her eye. To this day, there are no
fireworks allowed at our house. On that
note, everybody stay safe.

Deb,
I'm so glad she was OK.
It can happen to anybody, anywhere.
Everyone be vigilant and safe.