A Poppy in Remembrance

I thought a photo of one of the poppies in my garden would be appropriate for the 80th anniversary of the D Day landings. My dad was a young man in the Royal Corps of Signals at this time and worked on intercepting signals and delivering them by motorbike a few miles to Bletchley Park. So thankfully he wasn't part of the invasion force where so many died. I watched the commemoration programme this morning which I found deeply moving, especially as some of the 23 veterans there had their accounts of the day read out. The new British Normandy Memorial looked splendid; the King, President Macron and the PM spoke well; the Red Arrows were amazing; the few veterans did us proud, as did the services represented and I thought the silhouettes of British soldiers were a very powerful image. For me the abiding image though was of the veteran reading the following lines whilst supported to stand by a young serviceman who could have been the age the veteran was on D Day (I couldn't find either of their names online).

'They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old, age shall not weary them nor the years condemn, at the going down of the sun and in the morning, we shall remember them.'

I watched the ladies quarter finals at the French Open this afternoon whilst listening to Alice Perkins (Chair) at the post office inquiry. Another witness claiming ignorance and who at the very best was incompetent. Just shocking. 

I've attached a couple of extras, one being a collage of wildflowers from a guided walk I did in Holt last night, and the other of one of the fledglings being fed suet from a fat ball (a messy affair). 

For info the flowers are from top left: yellow rattle, green alkanet, red campion, two common spotted orchids with lesser stichwort in the middle, bee orchid, bulbous buttercup and ragged robin.