Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/09/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I went for my customary walk today and decided to eat my lunch sat on a bench on the village green at Stoke Albany. The sky was a perfect blue, the sun still felt warm on my back and there was a gentle breeze. The trees around the village green were just starting to show that first shift in colour that signals the onset of Autumn. As I ate my lunch I took detailed stock of my surroundings. The centrepiece was a small obelisk surrounded by a circle of steps which were in turn surrounded by a narrow bed of flowers in full bloom. The manner in which the monument and flowers were kept was testimony to the inscription on the monument that those who gave their lives in the Great War are not forgotten. During the course of my lunch three cars pulled up by the church which fronts the village green and each car that arrived had a least one passenger carrying flowers for the more recently departed in the churchyard. Distant bells proclaimed that a wedding was taking place in Wilbarston, a village less than a mile from where I sat, a perfect day to start a marriage. Somewhere off in the distance a dog was barking and that mingled with the sound of hooves on tarmac as riders passed on their way to and from the nearby stables. It was England at its best, a place so beautiful that even with my eyes shut it sounded beautiful. The scene was a photographers dream but for all its beauty it could not hold my attention. My thoughts were, and remain with, Sonny Carter and his family and I pray that they all come through safely. --gb