Armistice Day

[Tiki Tom]

In Flanders’ fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row...

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/p...inute-silence-for-armistice-day-a3393331.html

 

[MisterCairo]

Lest We Forget.

I'm polishing my shoes and taking the lint brush to my uniform, and heading to the cenotaph shortly.

It's Remembrance Day in Canada:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/remembrance-day-cbc-coverage-1.3845944

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/first-world-war-history-remembrance-1.3845468

 

[MisterCairo]

"In Flanders Fields"

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields"

Composed at the battlefront on 3 May 1915 during the Second Battle of Ypres, Belgium.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/in-flanders-fields/

 

[MisterCairo]

Just heading out to the cenotaph in Stratford, Ontario. Here is a poignant reminder of what we're remembering this day in Canada:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/remembrance-day-canada-ottawa-national-war-memorial-1.3846939

 

[Stearmen]

 

[GHT]

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not 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 will remember them

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Robert Laurence Binyon

 

[Otter]

I did mine on Tuesday as I am working this week. Climbed the hills behind us and put two poppy crosses on the wreckage of a plane that crashed in 1944.

 

[MisterCairo]

Getting ready to head to the cenotaph in Stratford, Ontario, for Remembrance Day.

Lest We Forget

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/remembrance-day-2017-canada-tributes-problem-1.4398821

 

[MisterCairo]

It was a cold one today, my youngest was almost in tears as she had only rain boots on (proper winter boots were bought right after lunch!) but she toughed it out.

 

[MisterCairo]

A modern tribute. "Highway of Heroes" from Canada's own The Trews.

For an explanation of "highway of heroes", we take you to American newscaster Brian Williams:

 

[DNO]

My wife and I did the Highway of Heroes thing several times...used to keep a flag in my car for that purpose. We usually stood on a bridge across the 401 in Pickering. Glad we don't have to do that anymore.

That's an impressive memorial in Stratford...looks like a work by Walter Allward.

 

[MisterCairo]

My wife and I did the Highway of Heroes thing several times...used to keep a flag in my car for that purpose. We usually stood on a bridge across the 401 in Pickering. Glad we don't have to do that anymore.

That's an impressive memorial in Stratford...looks like a work by Walter Allward.

Good eye - it was indeed by Allward, Stratford is quite proud of that fact!