The walk today was short, little legs were tired and the riverbank gloomy with the first drops of rain falling. At the end of the river path we did a loop to pass the little Cenotaph Memorial Garden, freshly swept and weeded by townspeople all week.
Photo from Google Images
The majority of the Remembrance Day wreaths were already in position and I stood quietly reading through the list of the names of the men the town lost through the two world wars. It's sobering and always makes me thankful that my two men came back safe and sound with 'only' horrific thoughts and memories to cope with. As I turned to leave a smartly dressed and obviously ex-military man arrived carrying another wreath to place on the steps, smiling a sad, 'good morning' to each other I walked away and left him to his thoughts and memories.
Then we looped back through town.
Every year the bollards that protect pedestrians from traffic along this narrow main road each carry a poppy. Some with names and dates on some left blank, all bought to remember a lost loved one.
The week before Remembrance Sunday and until just after the 11th, all the shop windows carry red or poppy laden window displays and the businesses with space to do so add their own tributes.
As the sky lightened on the High Street we headed for home.
Every single poppy on the net that cascades from the Market Cross was hand knitted or crocheted last year.
We reached home as the slight rain stopped and the just as the sky lightened, our quieter than usual mornings walk sobering me and making me so thankful for all that life offers.
Sue xx
Remembrance Sunday is always a sobering day for me when I feel ever more grateful for what others have done for us to make our lives free. May they Rest in Peace...
ReplyDeleteI am alone again today, Sue, so thank you for sharing your beautiful photos x
I can honestly say I had never heard of the town Garstang until you spoke about it it and eventually moved there. The more you show me the more I love it. I do miss a lot of things about the north since leaving as a child. Good Black pudding, friendly people and most of all the sense of community that comes across in your post today. We should always remember those who died for their Country. May they rest in Peace.
ReplyDeleteThose poppies on the bollards are beautiful. What a lovely touching tribute. More towns should do this. x
ReplyDeleteThank you .
ReplyDeleteThat's a lovely poppy display. We have some of those big ones in our High Street.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sue♥
ReplyDeleteLovely pictures of a very nice village! I can just see you and Suky walking around the town. All the poppies are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteVery touching. It is good to think on these things, and remember them. I saw the movie 'They Shall Not Grow Old'and it was hearbreaking to see those young faces brought back to life. Some of them looked like children. Once scene panned across a sea of men and said most of them did not survive. I don't believe the enormity of war ever struck me as powerfully as it did with that brief scene.
ReplyDeleteThere are also many who have come back from more recent times overseas, damaged physically and mentally, who struggle and will never be the same...they too are lost ones.
ReplyDeleteWe make a point of always reading the names on war memorials, and acknowledging their sacrifice. Some small towns lost multiple members of each family, and of course the mental damage to those 'lucky ones' who returned was carried by families wracked by nightmares, violence, alcohol and abuse. War certainly doesn't stop when the guns fall silent.
ReplyDeleteLest we forget.... Never.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
What a beautiful town, the poppy displays are absolutely lovely. xxx
ReplyDelete