ANZAC Surprise

Here in New Zealand it is autumn, so these spring flowering soldier poppies were a wonderful surprise flowering for ANZAC day, along with their companions, the cornflowers. So in my garden in Prebbleton I had my own little tribute to the fallen and returned ANZAC soldiers, and also to my dear grandfather, Poppy, who died on ANZAC day. Mr B and I went down the road to the war memorial to commemorate ANZAC day with our community. The twinnies were there with their mum, so it was lovely to share the special day with them. Miss Biddy and I put a rose from my garden on the memorial. We had a look at the old photos inside the memorial hall. The photos showed young men with such confidence on their faces. Had they known the horrors to come I'm sure the pictures would have told a different story. Mr B and I are watching The Pacific as Mr B was a fan of Band of Brothers. It is on tonight. I find it hard to watch the soldiers dealing with the death of their mates. Saving Private Ryan was on on Saturday night so we watched that. The deaths in that are possibly the most realistic in war movies because they are not all a quick drop in a volley of bullets. The futility of the whole thing, and the insignificance of each individual person to the whole operation strikes me when I watch anything about war. Peoples lives should be treasured, not wasted.