Reflecting on the day
Jun. 25th, 2012 12:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melodysparksI visited the National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas in Staffordshire again today with two of my photography buddies. I got to admit we did miss our fourth Musketeer. Whenever the four of us ventured out together on a photogrpahy walk the weather was tempremental for the most part. I can remember the visit to Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire before going on to Lichfield Cathedral when all it did was rain although that it didn't stop us taking the cameras out and grabing a few photographs. Dull dismal weather is useful sometimes to get lovely atmospheric images. Guy always blamed Pete considering the walks we had attended when Pete was not with us were always dry and sunny. Well Guy wasn't with us today, he emegrated to the US last November and although we had one or two short showers the rest of the days was dry and often sunny.
Our last visit to Alrewas just over a year ago was dull with a few odd showers but we managed to walk around half of the arboretum and get some smashing images. We promised that we would pay a return visit when the weather was better. Later in the afternoon the weather changed for the better when we reached Fradley Junction for a late lunch and a walk along the canals.
AT the start of the week the long range forecast was not good and I refered to the three weather sites I check frequently (Surprisingly all three seem to have a different forecast from each other, The weather Channel, The BBC and The Met Office so which one do you believe?) I usually follow the advice of the Met Office after all they are supposed to be the source of the weather information. All three sites predicted a wet week with Saturday dry and sunny (Which it was) and a mixture of sunshine and showers for Sunday. We had both not that the weather would put us off anyway.
The National Memorial Arboretum is a charity run by staff and volunteers and is part of The Royal British Legion family. It is the UK's year-round centre of Remembrance, a living and lasting memorial to commemorate and celebrate those who have lost their lives in the service of their country, those who have served and suffered as a result of conflict, and other who for specific or appropriate reasons are commemorated on the site. Not only are the British Armed Forces commemorated here but other services link the police force, fire brigade, ambulance service, railway workers, RNLI and many more in 150 acres of wooded parkland within the National Forest in Staffordshire. The site was purpose built 11 years ago and receives over 300,000 visitors a year but relies on donations to exist.
Our visit today was to visit some of the new memorials that have been errected in the last year like the Railway workers memorial and the new Falklands memorial and the other half of the arboretum we did not see last visit. It was also a chance to visit the main British Armed Forces memorial again prior to the Olympic Torch visit and Armed Services Day events scheduled next week.
Because there are over 200 events annually at the arboretum you can often see a few veterans wandering around. Today seemed to have a mixture of visitors but I couldn't fail to miss Ghurkas and former army veterans for a service before the main memorial and the Naval reservists drilling for next weekends events. It is a place I know my father would love to visit as he is an active veteran of the Notts and Derbys Sherwood Foresters (now known as the second Mercian Regiment) and generally tends to visit the memorial events including the Rememberance parades in London on November and presently preparing for his annual pilgrimage to the Sherwood Foresters Memorial at Crich in Derbyshire for nexts weeks service.
I haven't the foggiest idea where this post is going but I feel a little out of sorts at the moment, melancholic perhaps, I did last time we visited despite a good day out. I do know that I felt a little choaked when I saw that since my last visit to the main memorial 3 panels had been carved with the names of those killed during the last year and I know that this time next year many more named will have been added to that list.
I did take some photographs which I have yet to take a look at or bother with converting from the RAW format since I arrived home but maybe that is just a reflection of the way I feel at the moment, that and perhaps fatigue and general reflection. I think I am in need of a few days to just clear my mind before tackling the images I took. I have a mixture of memorials and statues to show you.
I wanted to post something today but I can't get my head around it at the moment maybe in a few days.
Sorry.
Our last visit to Alrewas just over a year ago was dull with a few odd showers but we managed to walk around half of the arboretum and get some smashing images. We promised that we would pay a return visit when the weather was better. Later in the afternoon the weather changed for the better when we reached Fradley Junction for a late lunch and a walk along the canals.
AT the start of the week the long range forecast was not good and I refered to the three weather sites I check frequently (Surprisingly all three seem to have a different forecast from each other, The weather Channel, The BBC and The Met Office so which one do you believe?) I usually follow the advice of the Met Office after all they are supposed to be the source of the weather information. All three sites predicted a wet week with Saturday dry and sunny (Which it was) and a mixture of sunshine and showers for Sunday. We had both not that the weather would put us off anyway.
The National Memorial Arboretum is a charity run by staff and volunteers and is part of The Royal British Legion family. It is the UK's year-round centre of Remembrance, a living and lasting memorial to commemorate and celebrate those who have lost their lives in the service of their country, those who have served and suffered as a result of conflict, and other who for specific or appropriate reasons are commemorated on the site. Not only are the British Armed Forces commemorated here but other services link the police force, fire brigade, ambulance service, railway workers, RNLI and many more in 150 acres of wooded parkland within the National Forest in Staffordshire. The site was purpose built 11 years ago and receives over 300,000 visitors a year but relies on donations to exist.
Our visit today was to visit some of the new memorials that have been errected in the last year like the Railway workers memorial and the new Falklands memorial and the other half of the arboretum we did not see last visit. It was also a chance to visit the main British Armed Forces memorial again prior to the Olympic Torch visit and Armed Services Day events scheduled next week.
Because there are over 200 events annually at the arboretum you can often see a few veterans wandering around. Today seemed to have a mixture of visitors but I couldn't fail to miss Ghurkas and former army veterans for a service before the main memorial and the Naval reservists drilling for next weekends events. It is a place I know my father would love to visit as he is an active veteran of the Notts and Derbys Sherwood Foresters (now known as the second Mercian Regiment) and generally tends to visit the memorial events including the Rememberance parades in London on November and presently preparing for his annual pilgrimage to the Sherwood Foresters Memorial at Crich in Derbyshire for nexts weeks service.
I haven't the foggiest idea where this post is going but I feel a little out of sorts at the moment, melancholic perhaps, I did last time we visited despite a good day out. I do know that I felt a little choaked when I saw that since my last visit to the main memorial 3 panels had been carved with the names of those killed during the last year and I know that this time next year many more named will have been added to that list.
I did take some photographs which I have yet to take a look at or bother with converting from the RAW format since I arrived home but maybe that is just a reflection of the way I feel at the moment, that and perhaps fatigue and general reflection. I think I am in need of a few days to just clear my mind before tackling the images I took. I have a mixture of memorials and statues to show you.
I wanted to post something today but I can't get my head around it at the moment maybe in a few days.
Sorry.
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no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 12:01 am (UTC)I know it's cliche to call it "the ultimate sacrifice," but it really kinda is.
Oh, now I'm melonoly too.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 12:40 am (UTC)I wander around cemeteries all the time and each has a war memorial and I never feel like I do today but this beautiful arboretum which was incidentially inspired by Arlington makes me feel different. Maybe because the odd memorial in every town, city and village in the country just isnt enough and that this site encompasses the whole scale of those lost lives, lost souls.
I just wanted to open a crack to release that melancholy
Sorry for making you feel melancholy too.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 12:44 am (UTC)I think the thing about death is that it's easy to forget. After all, we're alive now. The dead don't really play a role in our day-to-day lives.
And then you go to a place like that, where the immensity of it is just so overwhelming, with each grave being a reminder of what was surely the gratest tragedy in someone's life... and then coupled with the whole Momento Mori part of it...
People who *don't* feel meloncoly after these sorts of things are the ones to watch out for.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 01:02 am (UTC)I saw an inscription today that I remembered Dum Spiro Spero "As I breathe, I hope" and I suppose its that hope of those who fought to their last breathe that is a tribute too.
GRRRRR I can't find the words to say what I'm feeling or thinking. I feel tongue tied
no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 01:07 am (UTC)“How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause? Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?” Sophie Scholl
I've tonnes of others on the subject too, but this one seemed the closest to what you're going for.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 01:16 am (UTC)That is like a dam bursting... The tears that threatened when I was stood before the newly engraved names are there now. Maybe that crack has opened enough
no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 01:25 am (UTC)