As part of the celebrations of 100 years since the end of World War I stuff is happening all over the UK. I live in a town of 14,000 people and our church has a waterfall of 14,000 poppies coming out of it right now



Otley town church

Beautiful. We so wanted to be there but going a bit after. Still planning the trip to Ypres or Leper in Nov.

One paper says 16,000 hand knitted poppies and one says 14,000 . In either case - quite an undertaking.

I have one of the original "Blood Swept Lands . . ." poppies from the Tower - one of my most cherished possessions.

Mrs Bilbo was on the team with the objective of hitting 14k. But just at the end an extra 2k rolled in

That's wonderful. How long will they be up? Are they selling them off for charity afterwards?

It took all summer, there are poppies painted on the pavements leading to the "Memorial Gardens" when on the 11th or the Sunday before the 11th there will be a short service as normal. Then I assume they come down for storage and use by the church in future (this is Yorkshire after all and you can't sell them as it would conflict with the British Legion who have the rights and benefits to the poppy sales at this time of year).

off topic -- I had no idea you live in Otley. Several years ago I stayed a couple of nights in Ilkey

Small world

And that was the end of the war to end all wars!

Hi P, yes that phrase stuck in my mind when I started this.

The BBC has had a 15 minute radio spot every weekday covering "fictional" news as it happened over the four years of the war hence giving us 4 years of radio programmes. Probably not the best idea as it has bored the pants off me, but some interesting little plot lines. For instance the soldier coming back from leave after being "missing presumed dead" to find his wife already married off, the union struggles of women allowed to work in industry, etc etc.