A bit of junk ...

Spent this morning enjoying (!!!!!) digging the lawn after it was trashed by the chickens, and reflecting on how much the ground elder was a pain ... but at least it was the worst thing I was digging up ...

All from Sanctuary Wood.

From the roadside in Belgium

Bullet scarred wall in Bourlon

Shell splinter from a field edge

Roadside bunker near Bapaume - part of the Hindenburg line.

Shells ready on the roadside for collection by the disposal squads.

Ocean Villas museum.

Peronne Museum.

In so many places remembrance is an everyday occurrence, because the evidence of the fighting is still there, dug up, ploughed up, walked past. It isn't some intellectual exercise but a daily danger. Talking with Philippe (of Deborah tank fame http://www.tank-cambrai.com/english/home.php) he told us 2 friends of his, one now dead after a shell exploded as he moved it, removing his arms and much of his face. He was in hospital for 2 days before he died. Another friend was in hospital for a fortnight after a gas shell leaked as he moved it.

The museum in Peronne (more from there later - an excellent museum) is quoting 700 years before the Somme is cleared ...

They won't make it onto any memorials, but still there are casualties of WW1.