VE Day anniversary ....
8th
May 2020 (Friday) 08.30
.... 75th Anniversary of the end of the
European part of WWII.
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| VE Day window - Old Post Office, Elie. |
Where
was I on that day? We were living at ‘Myrebird’,
Crathes (Deeside) and the one memory I have of that day was an aeroplane flying
low over our house with two soldiers sitting with their legs dangling out of
the plane, waving to us and everybody they flew over I imagine. They
were probably part of some celebration in Aberdeen. I assume the ‘door’ they were sitting in was the ‘door’ where paratroopers would
have exited the plane; they were hanging
onto a bar across the front of them; that
was my memory of VE Day. We were glad
that the European part of war was ended but my Mum was worried about her
brother, my Uncle Lewis, who was a POW of the Japanese in Burma. The notorious ‘Death Railway’ was unheard
of.... and wouldn’t be until after ‘VJ’ Day on 15th August (1945). Anyway that is my memory of VE
Day. Now back to ‘today’. The villages can’t have a VE Day party but
folks have bunting along the front of their houses, and the Union Flag is
flying (mine too)... so we are joining in as well as we can in these restricting
times. The BBC has coverage from all
over the country so I’ll watch that ‘on and off’ during the day. Graham and Elizabeth have decorated the ‘Old
Post Office’ window with a really evocative VE display . This is a really important day to celebrate
and many people lost their lives so that
we can do so... ‘They will always be remembered’.
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| 'Old Post Office' window. - Elie. |
At
the moment the weather is a bit iffy looking and drizzle is mentioned in the
forecast, but that’s probably for the hinterlands (Colinsburgh and Kinneuchar). Right now I see ‘bloo’ sky bumbling our way
so I might get out on the bike later;
after I’ve done some work. I
nearly forgot: it was 62 years ago today that the bold ‘Alber’
set off to begin his National Service at Aldershot.
21.00 We’ve had another gorgeous summer-like day
and I have taken advantage of it with a mixture of work and play; a small amount of play and a lot of
work. Hey that’s how easy it is to make
‘false news: no wonder Big Don is on
Twitter aw the time.
You
need three important things when working with cactus’s: a pair of tweezers, a roll
of sticky tape and
a magnifying glass. I have all three
and managed to do a lot of work (my idea of a lot) which is why the aforementioned
items were required.
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| Emily and John's garden in Stocklinch (Somerset) |
The
villages had a good show of bunting and flags for the VE Day anniversary; as did the whole of the UK. The News channels had good coverage of what
was going on everywhere.
This
is a Bank Holiday weekend; a quiet Bank
Holiday weekend I may add. Actually I
kinda like the villages ‘quiet’; on a normal
Bank holiday weekend they are usually too
overcrowded. Mind you I will be glad
when things settle down to a new
normal.... that, I suspect, will be a long way
off for us older folks.
 |
| It was a warm afternoon but the water must have been cold. |
‘Nae
plan' for tomorrow; the forecast is good
for mot of the day but the temperature is set to plummet later in the
afternoon. I plan to do a wee bit more
work on the greenhouse.
