Tuesday 9 September 2014

WOYWW - Lest We Forget

Well it has been a hectically busy week and sadly no crafting done whatsoever !

I spent 3 days in Poland on business - what a beautiful country - oh but how flat it is !!
I was amazed - we drove for 5 hours through lush fertile countryside - all as flat as a pancake !
The houses & farms were very much in the Northern European style and reminded me of Holland or Northern Germany.







Then on Saturday drove to London & went straight to the Meatopia event being held at Tobacco Dock in London.

This is a big BBQ festival - we went for work to see all the new products but as we had our other halves with us - we had fun too !!

The venue is in a restored warehouse complex in the Docklands - a real urban renovation - and it made a great venue - open roofed so the billowing clouds of BBQ smoke could escape !





We were staying near Tower Bridge and I very much wanted to see the Remembrance Project being installed at the Tower of London so we walked up early Sunday to get a good look.

In commemoration of the Centenary of the start of the Great War in 1914 they are creating over 888,000 ceramic poppies - each one to commemorate a British life lost in the First World War.

They are installing them in batches from 4th August - when war was declared - to Remembrance Day on 11th November - and even with what they have installed so far it is an amazing sight - a sea of red poppies in the moat of the Tower.

The poppies are cascading from windows and down the walls and massed in undulating drifts the moat ...


The display boards explain what the project is all about ...

On the early Sunday morning we were there, they were preparing to "plant" a new batch of poppies, the ceramic petals are sent down from the ceramic workshops & kilns in Derbyshire.

The metal stems have the black centres added and the the ceramic petals are added to complete the full poppy.

You can see the white bags of stems & centres ready to create the poppies.

The organisers were marking out areas of the grass with red spray paint to indicate where the next drift of poppies are to be "planted".

My Great Grandfather - serving in the Royal Engineers- was killed in Belgium in 1915 - it left my Grandmother an orphan and changed the whole course of her life.

This is of course very personal to me but it struck me it was just one of nearly a million stories.

And that was just those killed - not the additional thousands maimed or emotionally drained by the horrific fighting'

Every poppy in the commemoration had just such a story, a family changed for ever, a life path skewed into a new challenging direction for those left behind.

It made seeing the poppy display very moving.

I was so glad to have seen something that is a once in a lifetime event.

Do go to see it if you can ! Or at least look on-line to see all about it !

To complete my hectic week I am off on holiday to Turkey tomorrow - so may be a bit late visiting this week !
Have a great week
Ali xx






13 comments:

  1. How appropriate that your blog wallpaper is poppies. I am so moved by this project. It really brings the message home of just how many people were lost and as you said, how many families were affected. My grandfather fought in the WW2 in North Africa and it really changed him. War is so scaring in so many ways.

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  2. thank you so very much for sharing this Ali, it is quite amazing ...
    ..we have been having a number of TV shows on it as we lost a lot of lives, many millions from a very small country here is in Oz in the great war too and it is always makes me teary when thinking of how much they lost... every blessing and happy WOYWW Shaz in Oz.x #13

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  3. Had to come straight over from Lynda's, I was at the Tower on Saturday too, with a friend this time (we went round the Tower inside too) - but I took loads more pics of the poppies too. I've not noticed them marking out the drifts before though, not been there at the right time, obviously. (blogged about the Tower on my photo blog if you have time after your holiday, probably not before!!) Helen 6

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  4. Hi Ali - glad the Poland trip went well, and the BBQ event sounds fantastic. The sight of all those poppies must just blow you away. Quite overwhelming when you think of what so many others went through for us. Hugs, Chris # 34

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  5. Wonderful pics of the memorial and your BBQ event.
    Sandra de @26

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  6. What a week, Ali - trip abroad, amazing BBQ event, and all those poppies. Have a wonderful holiday - enjoy!
    Take care. God bless.
    Margaret #4

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  7. Thanks for sharing the photos, not something I'd be seeing otherwise ;)
    Angie #61

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  8. Very interesting post - thanks for sharing your thoughts and photos of your recent travels. I must go and see what's happening at the Tower. Hope you have a great day and a lovely crafting week to come. Hazel, WOYWW #45 x

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  9. Oh my the wonderful things I learn from snooping...great pictures. Thanks for sharing Be well ~ Carole #71

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  10. Carole left me a comment telling me to pop over to yours because I have put one pretty poppy on my blog today and mentioned my love of them. All I can say is wow wow wow. Those are simply stunning. Thanks for sharing them with us.
    Hugs,
    Annie x # 31

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  11. What fabulous trips and photos! Beautiful. #79

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  12. Hi Neighbor! thanks for the photo tour. It's my favorite was to travel!
    Robyn 22

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  13. My life Ali, you do get around. I'm surprised to read that Poland is flat...I have no idea what I thought really! I love the idea of Meatopia, the things one learns on WOYWW! ANd your poppy story, explanation and pics are amongst the most touching I've read. Puts each poppy in real context.

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