Remembrance Day

Services were held throughout the country this morning with two minutes silence at 11 o'clock. In Ilkeston however the Remembrance Day Service took place in St Mary's at 3pm followed by a parade to the Cenotaph where the the act of remembrance was completed and poppy wreathes were laid.

Forgotten Fruit

An unexpected turn of events meant that today didn't quite turn out as planned and I hadn't taken a picture for the blog so I took a walk down the garden not really expecting a decent photo as it is looking a little drab at the moment. All the summer flowers have disappeared and the predominant colour is green except for the fallen leaves that constantly litter the lawn but I spied a glimpse of red right at the bottom of the garden. I was surprised to see that even this late in the year, there was still some fruit on the raspberry canes worth picking and equally worth photographing. Hardly enough for a serving but plenty for a taste - don't think there'll be another one this year!

Suck & Blow

Anyone walking through the Market Place this afternoon may have thought that the overnight gales had blown away all the leaves that had settled in and around St Mary's churchyard but I know different. Earlier this morning two council workmen were hard at work. One of them had a machine strapped to his back and was blowing the fallen leaves into piles whilst the other one was operating a super vacuum cleaner to suck them into a vehicle to be transported away.

Armistice Day

All over the country today people stopped and stood in silence for two minutes at eleven o'clock to mark the anniversary of Armistice Day. Lost in their own thoughts and prayers as a mark of respect for those who gave their lives for our country, many places came to a standstill. Pictures on the TV news programmes have shown scenes from up and down the land and here is another one which differs slightly from those seen on the box. In Ilkeston it rained - in fact it absolutely chucked it down at 11 o'clock hence the spots on the camera lens despite my best efforts to keep it clear. Ten miutes later the sun was shining from a clearing sky!

Long Shadows

A much better day today and the wind has dropped temporarily but it is still cold. On what is expected to be the best day of the week a low sun in a cloudless sky produced some long shadows and this was early in the afternoon. Many of the trees are now leafless and although they are still lying on the ground, there's a distinct winter feeling all around. Strange to think that a fortnight ago we were still on British Summer Time while in just six weeks from now we'll have passed the shortest day.

Dancing Leaves

Well it dried for for a while after yesterday's downpour but the cold wind was still with us this morning and caused the leaves on the Market Place (and elsewhere) to swirl around eddying back and forth. It's obviously very difficult to catch the movement in a still image but I think this shot gives some impression of how they were dancing around.

What a Filthy Day!

Today was one of those days when you didn't go out unless you had to - and we had to! We had appointments this afternoon for flu jabs and we had intended to catch the bus part way and walk the rest to the surgery. The best laid plans and all that went by the wayside and we went in the car but while we were out we also took our son's dog for a walk. It was cold, wet and windy. By that I mean the weather not the dog. When we took her home she was cold and wet too, I'm not sure about the windy!