My secondary school was founded in 1619, and every year we celebrated Founder’s Day, usually in June I think. As soon as I saw the flower above when out on my walk on Monday I was drawn back 38 years to my first year at that school, as we all had to wear a Cornflower on our jackets. Apparently this was our founder’s favourite flower, but I’m afraid us boys didn’t think it was very manly to be wearing such a delicate bloom! All these years later I think its delicate nature is actually what makes it so beautiful, but my 11 year-old self was really rather uneducated on such things!

Addendum: Thinking a bit more about this flower, I reckon Cornflowers must come in several varieties, because the ones we had to wear at school had larger, darker blue florets.