A poignant day today for anyone who has had members of their family involved in any way with the armed forces or indeed any part of any war effort.
On Sunday we went into Llandudno and met up with Mum who was holidaying with a group of her friends in the resort for a long weekend. We walked down the promenade in the lovely morning sunshine to join the masses of people at the Cenotaph.
It was the first time we had come into town for the Remembrance Service, and the sound of the sea lapping on the beach behind us, with the seagulls calling overhead made for a poignant service for my ex Royal Navy man and me. The service was nice if a little confusing, with no order of service for the many hundreds of folks that had turned out.
The canons firing from the top of the Great Orme set the seagulls off in a frenzy of squawking, so the two minutes silence was filled with their mournful cries. It was lovely to see all ages taking part in the service, with all the Armed Forces represented, and the Lifeboat crews, Cadets, Girl Guides and Scouts, and many, many others all showing their utmost respect.
I'm glad we went, and now we will be awaiting delivery of our poppy from the Tower of London installation that I bought for Lovely Hubby. The email says it will be on it's way sometime in the next couple of weeks.
The wonderful picture above is courtesy of Max, Jayne's husband from the Blog 'The View from Bag End' when I saw it I just had to ask permission to use it here on my Blog. I will also print out a copy to keep with the poppy when it arrives. Our poppy is there somewhere nestled amongst all the others, sadly representing the 888,246 lives lost in the First World War.
For lots more about this wonderful installation visit HERE, which includes a film showing the poppies being made.
Thank you to Jayne for permission to use the photograph, and to M for taking such a remarkable set of photographs, the full set can be viewed HERE, this one may appear again when our poppy arrives.
Sue xx
Lucky you, when I realised the poppies were for sale, they had all been sold.
ReplyDeleteMy mum-in-law went to see the poppies last week and said they had all been sold.
ReplyDeleteWhat an incredible tribute. We will have some services here in the State today, but this sea of poppies is really beautiful.
ReplyDeleteWe got to see the poppies in August, it was so moving. Didn't know you could buy one.
ReplyDeleteThis display has touched so many people hasn't it? Some people have traveled miles to see it.
ReplyDeleteI agree
ReplyDeleteIt's a lovely photo and a delightfully powerful artistic exhibit
My sister went to see the display yesterday she said it was manic there with tourists but found it very touching.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sue. We are quite delighted and amazed how much interest Max's photos have received.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the reasons the display has touched us all is that the moat is HUGE, and this is such a powerful representation of so many individual lives lost.
Say thanks to your lovely hubby for his service to our country, I know it's an American thing to say that and we don't do it over here. All the more poignant for me as my nephew is at the beginning of his Navy career, waiting to be assigned his first boat (no, I didn't get that wrong, he won't be on a ship ... )
He's going to be a submariner too? Lovely Hubby did 24.5 of his 25 years in the Royal Navy on submarines, he found out he was terminally seasick on ships so had to transfer :-)
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