Poppies in Bloom! week 25, 2021 by Meera Rao
The spread on my upcycled Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2021
We recently returned from a trip to the UK. While we were there, during early November, we saw 'Poppy Appeal' to benefit veterans and their families. My research showed that the use of poppies to commemorate veterans not only in the UK but also in the USA & Canada began after World War 1. An American woman, Moina Michael, was inspired by a poem, In Flanders Fields, by Canadian soldier-physician Major John McCrae in 1915, began wearing poppies every day as a symbol of sacrifice by the soldiers. Soon, poppies became the symbol of remembrance of the lives of soldiers lost in wars. It's a coincidence that the page from my 2021 upcycled Smithsonian Engagement Calendar, which served as my pandemic diary and was long overdue for its place on my blog, had a sketch of the poppies from our garden.
The Smithsonian photo on the facing page is of Tropical Harvest,1973, a design by Suzie Zuzek for Key West Hand Print Fabrics, Inc. It is now at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Museum.
Poppy table at Edinburgh Railway Station, Scotland, Nov 7, 2025 photo by Meera Rao
Nature's Quilt, week 25, 2021 by Meera Rao
The sketch for week 25 from the 2022 Smithsonian Calendar upcycled as my pandemic diary is a colorful patch from our garden that seemed to mirror the photo of Howard Mehring Dark Star n.d. -acrylic on collaged canvas from the Anacostia Community Museum. The Yellow coreopsis, Red/Orange cannas, and the purple-hearts all resemble a flower quilt!
The spread on my upcycled Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2022
