Remembrance Sunday – Bushcraft Days

Carrying on with the Memorable Moments theme I thought a post on my favourite family pictures of the year was due. Each of the 12 pictures I have chosen have some special memories for me.

Starting off with my beautiful daughter Catherine who has the most amazingly curly hair. I captured this picture early in the year of her backlit by the morning sun. The moment caught individual strands of hair framing her perfectly.

We had a lovely day trip to Winchester in the spring. While we were relaxing in one of these small cafe’s you find in the Medieval backstreets I caught Alison looking perfectly relaxed with a cheeky little Finlay snuggled up to her – quite a beautiful moment you could say.

One of my favourite pastimes is to head out for a Bimble around our village of Bramley. I spend a lot of time photographing what I find. Catherine spotted some Chicken of the Woods fungus one day and was really taken with its colour.

The resulting picture taken in such a dark coniferous woodland I found both striking and beautiful.

A moment of joy is how I would describe this picture. We were visiting our friends Tracey and Neil on an RAF base one day and after a lovely barbie Alison decided it was time for for some gymnastics with the kids.

This picture reminded me to always be on the lookout for the unexpected – excellent style by the way Alison.

While visiting our friend Fraser from Coastal Survival we spent an afternoon on Chesil beach in Dorset. Someone had decided to build themselves a mini Stonehenge on the beach. Myself and the kids were very taken with it and it made for some great pictures.

Once I got down low to the mini monument the whole look of it changed transforming it into a picture I wanted to keep.

When we go camping as a family we can mostly be found sleeping in hammocks. Alison insists though that before she gets up that a cup of coffee is produced. It is a bit of a tradition now this coffee business but one I am happy to maintain – needless to say Alison is in full agreement with me.

Last June I took part in the 30 Days of Wildness organised by the Wildlife Trust. I blogged about my nature adventures for 30 days. On one of these little adventures I was exploring the ruins of the Roman amphitheatre at Silchester with my daughter Catherine.

We stopped for a rest and Catherine spotted a beautiful thatched cottage through the trees. She sat there and told me later that she had found her ideal home. To me this picture is like a painting and I can sit and look at it for a long time without getting bored.

As memorable moments go there are plenty to be found at the BCUK Bushmoot. We go every year and it is a great location for families.

I caught my son Finlay mucking about with some stocks ( they belong to the Live Action Role Players who use the site as well) and as I took the picture the parachute set up beside it suddenly puffed up with the wind. Not your typical outdoorsy picture but one I felt lent to a bit of B & W manipulation.

I took a lot of pictures while on holiday in France this year of some really beautiful places however it is this simple picture that sticks with me.

We were walking through a small industrial estate to get to a river walk when I grabbed this picture of the kids walking along holding hands. A little moment in time so easily missed you could say.

My friend Paul Kelly runs his own canal boat hire company called Thames Boat Training and I have been out twice this year to photograph his boats for his web site. On the last trip we moored up waiting for a lock to open when I snapped this little moment in time. I like the picture for its feeling of depth and sheer peace.

Remembrance Sunday was a lovely day in Bramley. After the service I took some group shots of all the Scouts, Cubs and Beavers however my daughter Catherine wanted to take some pictures with her iPhone.

I think Catherine has an eye for photography and I am keen for her to explore this talent of hers. Catherine took this slightly dark picture of Alison and myself with one of these Instagram filters you can load onto your iPhone. Not often anyone gets what I think is a good picture of me and I think Catherine did well here – As for Alison, well – she always looks good 🙂

I started with Catherine so I will finish with Finlay. He has been keen on Karate now for a year now and I was very proud to watch him recently get his Orange belt. Finlay is only 7 and can be as mischievous as any other young lad however when he applies himself to something he can show some excellent self discipline – so well done son.

The next instalment in the Memorable Moments series will be on some of the nature photography I have taken this last year.

Cheers

George

I have served with the forces for a short period and the cadet forces for quite a number of years so Remembrance Sunday is always a time for me to reflect on the sacrifice others have given to ensure our continued safety.

I took my children Catherine and Finlay to the Poppies in the Moat display at the Tower of London recently; even though there were thousands of people there it was well worth the effort.

When we arrived the first building that took our breath away was the Shard. I had never been up close to this ‘blade of glass’ and it sure is stunning. While we walked around to the Tower we stopped to look over HMS Belfast, the ship I worked on for many years as a Sea Cadet instructor. Nowadays I do not attend the ship evening sessions as I live too far away but I still teach cadets on weekend courses doing adventure training.

It took us a long time to get over Tower Bridge due to the sheer number of people and the small alleyways. The slow shuffling was well worth the wait as the sight of all the poppies were amazing. I would have loved to have been able to just sit there and reflect but the sheer number of people moving around me (and the kids wanting to see more) made that impossible.

Each of these 888,246 poppies in this display represents one person from the British and Colonial forces who died during the First World War and is truly an awe-inspiring sight.

I took a couple of shots and then I made them black and white in Photoshop but kept the red in each picture. This is the part of the display that is called ‘The Wave’. The picture I took of it does not do this piece of artistic brilliance any justice and if you can get down to see it then do so.

The other picture that I played with is the one with the waterfall of poppies. We waited a long time to get to the corner where the trees and bushes were. I placed Catherine and Finlay on the wall and slowly stepped back before taking the shot but I could not move far because of the throng of people around us.

While I am writing this I am listening to a song on television from the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance called the Shores of Normandy by Jim Radford. Jim was a 15 year old galley boy working on a tug maneuvering the blocks of the Mulberry harbour into place on D-Day. His song is beautiful and recounts what he saw that day as he watched the storming of the Normandy beaches. I know this display represents those British and Colonial deaths in the First World War but truly this display represents far more to me.

Once we had finished we came across some members of the Parachute Regiment selling poppies. I introduced myself as an ex-Para and asked this sergeant if he was happy to have his picture taken with the kids and he was happy to oblige.

Then we were off sightseeing at all the strange buildings in the city centre. We ended up at the Monument and Catherine asked if we could go up. I had never been up before – the kids climbed all 311 steps without stopping for a break once.

The views from the top were brilliant looking over St Paul’s Cathedral, HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge.

The display of poppies is to be dismantled on the 12th of November but the section known as The Wave will be around until the end of the month before going on a national tour.

Cheers

George

Tag: Remembrance Sunday

Memorable Moments 2015 – Family Time

The Poppies in the Moat – Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red