red poppies

bought e Jan 2000 issue of Design Graphics years ago (probably from Australia during e Dec 1999 Tasmania/Victoria trip), & one small piece captured more than its fair share of my attention. a collage of images entitled 'War', it features photos of e digital artist's great grandfather (taken during WW1) & grandfather (taken during WW2) in military uniforms, overlaid on a backdrop of a vast golden field of what looks like wheat, & with blurred large red poppies superimposed on top.

man never learns, & history repeats itself once e generation that remembers passes on?

learnt (possibly throught my first encounter with e 'Poppy Appeal'?) that in e Allied nations, red poppies are e symbol of 'e sacrifice of shed blood' & 'those who have given their lives for e peace & freedom of others'. it is e flower of remembrance worn on Armistice Day, e anniversary of e official end of WW1 on 'e eleventh hour of e eleventh day of e eleventh month' on 11 Nov 1918, with e signing of e armistice between e Allies & e Germans & e end of hostilities on e Western Front.

from e Australian War Memorial website:

during the First World War, red poppies were seen to be among e first living plants that sprouted from e devastation of e battlefields of northern France & Belgium. Soldiers' folklore had it that e poppies were vivid red from having been nurtured in ground drenched with e blood of their comrades. e sight of e poppies on e battlefield at Ypres in 1915 moved Lt Col John McCrae to write e poem In Flanders Fields:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
- John McCrae

today (10th of July) is National Commemoration Day in e UK, where there will be an airdrop of a million red poppies in London.

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so charmed by this map showing e location of e Sea Turtle Research Unit in e KUSTEM (University College of Science & Technology Malaysia) campus in Kuala Terengganu, where one of e landmarks is 'Trees with chirping birds'....brings to mind e busy little olive-back sunbird seen in e little shrub near e B1 lifts of Blk S5, e chatty bulbuls that hop around e old IMCB & LT30, & e shy pink-necked green pigeon (Treron vernans)spotted in e bauhinia tree behind Blk MD1 in NUS =)

[ filed under: thewonderingstraycat + nature1 ]