POPPIES

I went to the Headland for a walk and saw that preparations are under way for Armistice Day, despite the fact that there won't be the usual services (and our choir won't be singing and shivering next to the sea). The groundspeople were tidying the park around the War Memorial and the local knitters have been busy knitting swathes of poppies to hang up on the railings of the Gun Battery Museum and on the Russian cannon*. I imagine (but don't know for sure) that a gun will be fired at 11am and as usual flocks of seagulls and starlings will take screaming to the air and fill in the silence.

We're shortly to start a Zoom rehearsal for our contribution to our youngest sister's birthday on Sunday. I've got special bunting and a glitter ball set up. We're all crossing everything that there's more than just her birthday to celebrate!

*"The cannon was captured from the Russian Army at the Battle of Sebastopol during the Crimean War (1854–56). In 1857, the then Secretary of State, Lord Panmure, offered the cannon to Hartlepool Borough Council who gratefully accepted it. It was transported from London on the steam ship 'Margaret', at a total cost of £2.19s.3d and after a year's delay, arrived at Hartlepool in September 1858."