Poppy field, Kings Barton

This huge and beautiful poppy field, irresistible to a painter, appeared just before building work began at Kings Barton in Winchester. The weather was dramatic too, thunderous purple landscapes of clouds above the pulsing reds, with tiny dashes of bright blue promise between them. The morning involved copious cups of coffee in the back of hatchbacks, but those of us who persevered were rewarded with generous sunshine in the early afternoon. The real gift for me was when a mother with two little girls ventured across the field rather than round it. This gave a new dimension to the whole scene – they were not observing the field, they were in it, the children almost immersed in the mass of red flowers, as in a new element. A delicious detail was one of them clutching a tatty plastic umbrella – hardly a parasol but a witty nod to the masters of Impressionism!