Remembrance

We're just back from a very well attended remembrance service at the local war memorial.  The Sally Anne band played well, and the military buglers were exceptionally good, we thought.  Except that one of them was not unadjacent to my left ear...  The service is always moving, the more so for Martyn, two of whose great-uncles were thrown away in that utterly futile war.  In addition to an impressive public audience, there was not a bad turn-out of my local co-hobbyists: we processed in the B list behind the mayoral party.  There was a march-past by the local TA, cadet forces and other para-militaries like the cubs and brownies, all marching to the beat of the ATC band's drums.  Pleasant reception afterwards in the Council chamber afterwards, hosted by our worshipful next-door neighbour.  At the beginning and end of the two minutes' silence, there was a fly-past of four private light aeroplanes.  Not mentioned in  the order of service.  Curious.

I'll no doubt have to do a reprise of the two minutes' silence on Tuesday at the hobby.  Always tough, since we shall never forget the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, that being when, 31 years ago, we gathered for my father's funeral.

London trip yesterday for the hobby club AGM.  Interesting venue: the old West Ham Town Hall in Stratford, a suitably pompous Victorian structure in a neighbourhood that is trying to gain some standing post-Olympics.  Quite a useful meeting, though I learned the hard way that my voice will not fill the great hall without benefit of electronics.  The approach from the station is via a hideous shopping mall, so on leaving I opted instead to take the bus from the front of the Town Hall to a station further down the line.  All the transport elements connected well, but I'm not wild about sharing carriages with picnicking families with sprogs that crawl squealing under the seats, nor about neighbours with doubtful oral hygeine.  Oh well, they'd probably rather not share space with me either.

Fine day today, so after plenty of fresh air at the remembrance service, I added a little more by cropping the last of the borlottis and yellow runners, taking down the bean frame and adding the beanstalks to the compost bin.  Our new raised bed has done pretty well this year: the sage has practically taken over!  I shall hack it back presently, and in the spring we'll top dress with some home-made compost and turn it over gently.  Elsewhere in the garden, the roses are just about ready for their autumn trim, aimed at reducing the risk of wind-rock.  I'm always reluctant to do it, since a number of them flower until Christmas and beyond.  but the price of my reluctance this year is some very leggy roses.  Earlier in the week, we Got Someone In to give the leylandii hedges their annual seeing-to, and to take out two of the three trees that were over-populating the top right-hand corner of the garden.We may thus lose a bit of shade from the top terrace, but we needn't worry about that for seven or eight months, eh?