365 Project, week 36

[curiouswombat]

The week has gone by quickly. It has included at least one of those meetings where you find yourself thinking 'Well that's an hour and a half I'm never getting back...' a lovely meal out, changeable weather.

The pictures reflect some of this, but not all of it. There is one which will gladden hesadevil's heart, remembering her post about 'guys', and there is quite a long bit about Remembrance Sunday as well.



Last week cbtreks, from northern Indiana, commented on how nice it was to still see flowers in these posts both on my journal and debris4spike's. So, at lunch time on Monday, I went out to the yard and looked at what was still in flower. I have three or four geraniums still in bloom, a couple of roses, a verbena, and two fuchsias, not to mention cyclamens and wallflowers that are just starting to open.

This is a close up of one of the fuchsias. not a brilliant picture, but the colours are so vibrant that I really like it.



Tuesday - I went up to the small industrial estate where our equipment store is. The drive way down has the usual bushes and trees, but also a number of clumps of pampas grass. I am not sure if this was someone 'landscaping' the industrial site with a quirky sense of humour (or a stock of the stuff they wanted rid of), whether it is self-seeded, or whether the people who previously had a farm on the land planted it in their garden and the new road down goes through it... But we have bare trees and pampas grass:



The weather all week has been a mixture of sunshine and showers - almost spring-like in the way it has switched from one to the other in seconds. Good weather, I thought on Wednesday, for rainbows - and then looked up as I went past the couple of open fields between Onchan and Douglas - and lo! There was a rainbow -



I saw an even better one yesterday, but wasn't anywhere that I could easily stop to get the camera out.

Thursday was November 5th when Britain generally remembers that a group or Catholics failed to blow up the Protestant Parliament in Westminster over 400 years ago. Celebrating the even was compulsory, by decree, until the middle of the nineteenth century - bonfires were to be lit and much fun was to be had by all - or else! Which probably explains why the Isle of Man joined in, even though it wasn't our direct parliament. That, and the ease at which the bonfires for the Old New Year and Sauin (Samhain) could simply be moved by a day or two...

Anyway, we happily joined in the bonfires, fireworks when they became part of things, and the stuffing of old clothes to form a 'Guy' to burn on the top of it all. I don't think I had any idea why the figure was called a guy until I was at secondary school, it just was. It was as common here to see children standing outside shops begging for 'A penny for the guy' as it was in mainland UK - even though we'd all made plenty of pocket money at Hop tu Naa singing from house to house. But, as in the UK, this has almost disapeared - as an article hesadevil linked to in her journal pointed out. And then, on Thursday afternoon I called into the shop on a council estate in Douglas and here were two young lads with their guys.

OK - not brilliant - but they even had the 'traditional' pram to push one of them in!

They were more than happy to have their picture taken -



Friday I was travelling over the mountain road. The clouds hung just above my head, but it was clear looking down towards Laxey - and the greens, yellows and purples of earlier seasons have now given way in swathes to the brown of dry bracken -



I liked the pattern of the fields below, too - it reminded me of a small boy at church who has patterns clipped into his hair.

On Friday evening my sister and I, along with another four representatives of our Church, went to Ramsey to join our sister uRC as they celebrated 175 years as a congregation and 125 years in their church which a lot more traditional than ours. It is worthy of note that when they committed to erecting that building there were only 45 members - as my sister said, a real act of faith.

We celebrated, in true Manx fashion, with a good feed and good cooish. The history of the congregation was recounted, with most emphasis on the last sixty years or so, by people who remembered - and each of the 'official' speakers then invited everyone to add their own memories of that period - real history. We were also entertained by a couple of members of the congregation telling silly stories and reading poems - all over by 10pm and a good night had by all 80 or so of us!

I went to Mum's on Saturday - and one of her Christmas cactii has decided to burst into flower during the past week. It is a bit early...



Today is, of course, Remembrance Sunday. We always start our Sunday worship with the silence, the reading of the names on our memorial, and the laying of a wreath. (Hmm - those who read Brotherhood and the service to remember the fallen elves can make of the similarity what they will...)

This year we made it a family service, with the children participating, and it was the most moving of services. So many of the congregation came up to those of us who took part to say so afterwards, too.

I just want to share the bit I did - I gathered together cards for all occasions - new baby, birthday, Mothers's day, wedding anniversary, wedding, 21st Birthday and so on - and we talked through the life of Joe who was born in a cottage in Marown in 1878, which cards he would have got during his life, which ones he might have given, where he lived when he got married - cards he might have given his wife. Then another young man, Walter, who was born in 1900 and lived in Windsor Road in Douglas; what cards he might have got or given - did he remember his mother's birthday? And so on. Except that he never got any 21st birthday cards. For both Joe and Walter we finishing with a Sympathy card - because they died in 1918, and you can see their names here on the memorial in Church -



JD Cretney, and W Kewley...


..................................................


And now I must go to finish off dinner - there is a casserole in the oven, I just need to do potatoes to go with it - and be grateful that I am here, and I have food to eat, in peace.

Comments

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

I've never seen a "real" fuschia before, just the crayon with its name. So it was quite a shocking treat!

Here we call Remembrance Day Veterans' Day, and, as more people in living memory remember World War II and all the wars after that, it's more a memorial to WWII soldiers than anyone else. Though soldiers from previous wars and later wars shouldn't be forgotten either. :)

I found a paper model of a Guy Fawkes mask free to download. It may be a little difficult for less crafty posters here, but by following the PDO file (which requires the free downloadable software Pepakura) you can figure out where all the folds are. So, for crafty LJers with some time on their hands, here's a mask for next year: http://kimpix.net/2006/11/25/guy-fawkes-paper-craft-mask/

P.S.: I also found a simpler mask of a Doctor Who Cybershade and one of David Bowie! Here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/misc/advent08/december_13 and here: http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/downloads/wallpaper/bowiemask.jpg

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Fuchsias grow well here - that one is in the classic colours but I also have one which is all pale pink.

As you can see we have the dead of both the big wars on the memorial and, on the one in the village and the one in Douglas, there are dead from more recent conflicts - Northern Ireland and Korea if I remember rightly.