Remembering

For some, Christmas is a time of sadness. It's not all parties, crackers and tinsel if you're feeling, lonely, sad or generally down. People are also grieving for loved ones that they have lost recently.

One such, is the person that taped this bunch of flowers to the railings along the canal, as last week, the police sadly fished someone out of the water, who had gone missing.

A upsetting thing for both the police, and for the family of the man they retrieved.

I hope the person that did this, has taken some comfort from marking the area where it happened.

I pass this way to and from work, and it's not nice to know that someone decided that this was going to be the place where they wanted to end it all. Fortunately there are a number of voluntary organisations that are there to help people that are feeling the same way. I just hope that they decide to call them first.

In Memory

Death seems to be on everyones lips at the moment, with the passing almost every couple of days of someone well known. Lemmy at Christmas, David Bowie last week and Glenn Frey from the Eagles yesterday.

But of course it is not only superstars that have to face the final curtain. The ordinary, the poor and the old have to face it too. Which brings me to sadly finding out today that Arthur, the father of a friend of mine, who passed away early this morning in hospital, at the age of 81.

I've known Russell and Arthur a number of years through being involved in amateur dramatics, and appearing in shows together. Of course the father and son duo were much better than me, as they had been involved in entertaining people for a long time. They had even made a film appearance together in Santa Claus The Movie, which starred Dudley Moore.

Arthur of course had other strings to his bow, which included painting and writing poetry. I'd not seen him for a while due to his illness and needing long term care. But I listen to Russell most Sunday afternoons, as he does an Internet based radio show, which features music from days gone by.

This isn't one of my photos. I've copied it from Russell's Facebook page, but I''m sure he won't mind, as hopefully it will bring some comfort to him and that he knows that I am thinking of him.

In Memory Of

I came across this plaque today on the pavement outside a local casino.

Googling the name, I found out that Jamie died whilst travelling as a passenger in a car that crashed into a tree in another part of town. The driver was drunk. Twice the legal limit in fact, and driving at 60mph in a 30 limit.

A sad story, and next month marks the 10th anniversary of his death. I wonder if there will be any flowers left on August 26th?

Lest We Forget

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in France, which helped end the war in Europe. Although that didn't take place until May 1945.

There have been many events around the country, including the main one in France, which the Queen attended.

Here's my contribution. A single red poppy that I found growing in the front garden. We have many yellow ones, but this red one is the only one amongst them.

Sadly, just after I took this photo, there was a big gust of wind and all the petals dropped off.