Ukraine

My mother-in-law doesn't normally do this sort of thing, but because of the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia she planted a sunflower seed, and as you can see it's grown up and started to flower. She isn't usually political at all, but I think the oil shortages earlier in the news and the constant references to Ukraine and the invasion has made her think.

The oil shortage in France was most strange. Oilseedrape oil is very common, and though sunflower is also used rape is the cheapest - if you exclude palm (which I don't consider fit for human consumption or sustainable). Both rape and sunflower are grown on a significant scale in France and a lot that you see in the supermarket is of EU or French origin. Because Ukraine is a major sunflower exporter it was on the news, and within a few days of panic buying the supermarkets were empty all over France. Now the panic has died down - even though the war drags on - the supplies have returned to normal and at the weekend our local Carrefour was doing a deal to try and shift surplus stock...