They shall not grow old .....

Dianna made this graphic,and called it Poppy fields ,which is very appropriate,considering July 1st marks the ninetieth aniversary of the Beginning of the war to end all wars ,well that was what it was called ! and that is what was believed ,sadly how wrong was that statement .My own Grandfather fought in what we learned to call the first world war ,I remember seeing a sepia picture  of him in his uniform ,with his peaked cap..... his puttys always puzzled me ,I could see his legs were bandaged ?in the picture,!and it made sense to me ,since he suffered with ulcers to his legs as an old man ,I simply linked the two ,in my very young mind .. Of course the first had nothing to do with the second.how I wish I had asked more questions ,I can remember my Granny saying though ,that her George had gone to war as a boy and came back a very quiet man ....

Like many of you ,I have been watching the services from northern France ,and listening to the storys ,how seven hundred,and fifty men and indeed boys ,who had grown up together ,worked together signed up together ....and in those early days of that awful war died together ,from the north .Leeds and surrounding towns and villages ,On the banks of the Somme,the river still wends its way through France into Belgium,and the poppys still bloom as a poignant reminder of the blood that was shed ....

So ,still today ,The Royal  Bitish Legion,founded by The Earl Douglas Haigh ,have the poppy as their emblem ,(as a child,the centre of the poppy was  wax ,I think ,with The Haigh fund written on each poppy)

I have been watching with interest how one hundred and ten year old Henry Altringham ,Air Mechanic first class ,and last surviving member of the founding flying corps ......He attended the service at Tiepval ,where he said, he had come to pay tribute to those who didnt get the chance to have a long life as he had done .What awful memorys has he carried with him down all those years ?

I was going to tell you all about the open day yesterday,and I was standing at the jewellery stall  when I heard the band playing 'Oh Valiant hearts ',so I thought if they could take time out from playing their jolly tunes ,I could pay my tribute to those men ,who as I say my Grandad was one, luckily he came home. But to so many today ,these storys are now history .....

A very Blessed Sunday to you all Jan xx