I went up to Yorkshire today to spend the day with Graham and we ended up driving through some beautiful countryside and pretty villages just as the sun was beginning to set. At the first village we came to, we saw the village war memorial covered in poppy wreaths that would have been left earlier today in one of the thousands and thousands of Remembrance Day parades that took place in every corner of the country and in every town in between. In total, we drove through five villages/small towns and we stopped at each and every one to take photos of the wreaths and individual poppies that had been left by schools, clubs, political parties, veterans associations and just about every other kind of group you could imagine. We may only be a small country and I often think that the fact that we tend to remember and commemorate in quieter, less obvious and altogether more low key ways than other countries is mistaken for not caring. Make no mistake though, we do care. Every bit as much as those who choose to remember in a much more 'bold' and obvious fashion. Sometimes reserved, dignified and proud is all that is needed. Not better, not worse...just different.
"At the setting of the sun...we will remember them.." and this was a perfect, fitting and beautiful Yorkshire sunset at the end of a perfect, and poignant, day.
