Poor man's weather glass, rich woman's fortune

This is scarlet pimpernel Anagallis arvensis, an annual plant usually regarded as a weed since it springs up where the ground has been disturbed for example in ploughed fields or flower beds and wherever there is bare earth. The tiny 5-petal flowers only open in bright sunshine in the middle of the day but the old name of 'poor man's weather glass' must surely be ironic - a peasant working in the fields don't need a weather glass to tell which way the wind blows.* Today the flowers were tightly closed when I snapped the plant at midday under a grey and leaky sky.

The Scarlet Pimpernel was the fictional hero of a story by Baroness Orczy in 1903. (She's always referred by her title rather than her name which being Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála "Emmuska" Orczy de Orczi, is hardly surprising.) Born in Hungary she came to Britain as a child, married a poor clergyman and tried her hand at writing to earn some extra cash. She hit the jackpot with her novels about a band of English aristocrats who rescue French aristocrats from the guillotine during the Revolution, the Scarlet Pimpernel being their dashing and elusive leader.

A record-breaking stage version boosted book sales and gained her a life of luxury, including an estate in Monte Carlo. Always politically right-wing, during WWI Orczy formed the 'Women of England's Active Service League', intended to recruit female volunteers for active service. She aimed to enlist 100,000 women who would pledge "to persuade every man I know to offer his service to his country" - they were responsible for handing out white feathers to men they deemed to be cowards because they were not in uniform. Inevitably they caused offence when they gave feathers to soldiers who were on leave or wounded. (One pacifist claimed he had received enough to make a fan.)

From poor man to rich woman, red petals to white feathers: reflections for a rainy day.

* It's here

[Thank you all for the enthusiastic response to yesterday's mole blip and apologies for slipping behind with comments today.]