Third Battle of Ypres/Passchendaele anniversary

31st July 2017 (Monday) ....  (Centenary of the start of.... the battle of Passchendaele).     In memory of those, on both sides, who fell in that atrocious battle, ... and, in  all wars since .... “Floo’ers o’ the Forest” by the Scots Guards.

09.00    A hundred years ago, by this time at Passchendaele, the battle field would be littered with dead and dying and wounded.... in what was to become one of the bloodiest, muddiest, and most futile battles, of all time.   Yes .... we will, and should, remember them.

Everything is wet this morning so we must have had a lot of rain overnight;   the sun

This morning on the Ferry beach.

has broken through and it looks like we could have a nice day ahead... albeit with showers.    I have been up to Chapel Green on my bike, and I have the urge to go a bit further after breakfast.

20.30     I didn’t get out on the bike again;  there were too many heavy showers bumbling around, and I had a couple of jerseys out on the washing line.    Luckily the showers relented for a few hours... enough time for the jerseys to be near enough dry,.... and brought in.   Since then we have had a series of heavy downpours:  at least we won’t have a hosepipe ban this summer!    We might not even have 'a summer!'   

Morning dog walk.

Jimmy came along, needing to go Leven, and, as there was a shower passing over us at the time, it was a good way to spend an hour.    We had to go to the Bargain Store, and Lidl’s, to get the stuff Jimmy wanted.

I went up to the ‘Pony Field’ for a late afternoon walk after the ‘deluge’;  the deluge that soaked Barbara who was golfing.    The  view from the ‘Pony Field’ is excellent at any time, but it was particularly so this afternoon:  the ‘light’ was constantly changing .... so I photographed it ‘to bits’.    It has turned into a lovely evening... I might go down to the

Earlsferry.

beach later.

For me, the most memorable part of the BBC’s, World War One Remembered – Passchendaele  ... was ‘Rebecca’ being interviewed by the BBC at Tyne Cot Cemetery:  she got it right... the War to end Wars ... didn’t.   In fact the Versailles Treaty, signed in 1919, more or less set up WWII.  

Photographs : Top  and Middle – the beach this morning, and Bottom -  Earlsferry in early evening light.