Here today...

My long-lived Amaryllis has been blooming for around three weeks now. This is the final flower on the stalk; the withered petals are all that remain of the equally magnificent fore-runners.

We heard today that the mother of our second Syrian family has lost her brother, killed by a bomb in the area around Idlib. He was 17.
S, who is only in her early 20s, had not seen him for 5 years since she  escaped with her husband to Lebanon, but they spoke frequently by phone. She showed us his picture as he lay dead, his face unblemished.
He had begged her to let him come and live with her but there is no mechanism in the UK to allow relatives  to join family members here unless they are registered with the UNHCR. 
We are all desperately saddened by this tragedy.  Regardless of the celebrations around the anniversary of D Day  we  must never forget that  wars continue to claim victims every day elsewhere in the world.