back home, Memorial Day weekend

post #286
     Next week will be England, part 2. Today I am pausing to recognize the importance of Memorial Day in the region where I live. All the cemeteries are sparkling, and many relatives from away have come in for the weekend. I have missed the shared meal of the McDaniel family today, in their shelter building near the family cemetery, because of other things going on here at the house, but I have been thinking of them all. It's not raining or too hot today, just cloudy with an occasional sprinkle. Sort of perfect!
      First, three photos from the cemetery on our place that I made a couple of weeks ago. I thought the blue flowered carpet was amazing. As of last night, all had been 'cleaned up'.

I discovered this lovely line of flowers behind this gravestone.

overview of one family's section of the cemetery

close-up

 
 Last evening's view of the same two headstones:

 More views of from the whole cemetery:

newly spruced up table top and benches

The tall trees are all part of our land.

      Well, in London last week, I also visited a memorial of sorts, in Bloomsbury, the neighborhood where the homes of Virginia Woolf and many of her family and friends are located, along Gordon Park, near the British Museum. That day the park was filled with school groups, and flowers. George Ella, this is for you.

from the sign post at one of the park entrances

       
          We are who we are because of who came before us. We honor and love these family members as well as others we have learned from by keeping them in our hearts and minds -- and by acknowledging their part in our on-going lives. For me, this means also working for peace so that brave lives don't have to be lost at war when there are surely other ways to solve problems --  even when that can seem impossible to imagine.