Summer's on it's way....

It's the shortest day of the year here in the northern hemisphere. My ever faithful GPS informs me sunrise was at 8.15am....well you don't think I was going to get up to see for myself did you? Horrible time of day morning, all cold and full of grumpy people.

Sunset is at 3.53 pm. That's a mere 7 hours and 38 minutes of daylight!

Of course it's so overcast and foggy here that the daylight is further curtailed. Realistically it doesn't get properly light until after 9.30 (so I've been told), and nightfall creeps in from as early as 3.20pm.

The blazing sunshine sometimes doesn't warm things up at all!

The decrease in natural light has a marked effect on our psychology. Melatonin increases disturbing our sleep patterns and serotonin is reduced causing lethargy, despondency and generally making us very bad tempered. Well, this the excuse I'm using for the behaviour of a certain cat....Max. He was sitting peacefully on the windowsill, so I bent down to say hello. Normally this would be greeted with a touch of noses and a purr, but today he decided to swipe me around the eye with razor sharp claws! With an angry cat now attached to my face, I grabbed his paw so he couldn't pull it free causing more damage and managed to carefully unhook it from my lower eyelid. We then had a scrap on the lawn which I made a point of winning. Later we made up over a saucer of milk (Max had one too). Winter is getting to us both.

Now I have a swollen eye that makes me look like a Rembrandt portrait.

By midday the sun was quite high, I assume (it was still obscured), and the temperature soared to nearly 1 degree.

It is traditional to light a fire to chase away the darkness. It is meant to be the largest log you can find as to last through the longest night. I was a bit short on massive logs so I instead celebrated, and marked the passing of 'Mr. Stick'.....Mr. Stick is made of stout pine and helps me explain things to those not willing to learn. He has been to hand when I had that run in with car thieves (See previous post 'Men in Black' gone bad...5th April) After years of faithful service in the role of home defence, Mr. Stick met an untimely end after a bizarre fly swatting accident!

Thank you Mr. Stick, you'll be sorely missed.

Nightfall was premature in the town tonight, but better longer lighter days are a coming, here's a boot up the arse of winter!.......

Opened by the Queen, closed to the public!...

Today was the official opening of the new war memorial in the national memorial arboretum. This huge circle of Portland stone has the names of the fallen carved on its inner edge. It is set on a huge mound, and has a slot specially aligned so at 11 o'clock on the 11th day of the 11 month, a shaft of sunlight will illuminate a statue of servicemen holding aloft a fallen comrade. The Queen and other dignitaries were on hand to perform the opening ceremony. Security was tight, and I had to cut through the back lanes in order to avoid the road closures.

You've never seen so many police, vans, cameras, motorbikes, plainclothes. All the local farms were being used as temporary bases for security personnel.

Still, I managed to find my way to the outskirts of the arboretum where the Queens entourage would arrive by car. As you can see I have no pictures, but you know what she looks like...big hat, nice car... I have no love for the Royal family; bunch of freeloading gits!

The general public weren't allowed in. I tried to explain that I wasn't a member of the public and never have been, but they weren't having any of it. Instead I found a little known car park by the nature reserve, that the royal security had adopted as their own. I parked alongside a black supercharged Range Rover that a man in a flack jacket with a gun was sat in monitoring the wireless cameras placed on the lampposts....if my car wasn't safe there it wasn't safe anywhere.
After a bit of wandering around looking for a good site overlooking the events, I came across a large van inhabited by some men in black with machine guns. I asked "Is there anywhere I can see the Queen and get a good shot?" As the words left my mouth, I realised they had been poorly chosen. Any way, I repacked my rucksack following the search and went on my way.

The closest I could get was across the lake in the nature reserve. The action was about 1/4 of a mile away, so I couldn't see much, but here there a some sailor chappies and a TV crew doing an interview.


The Queen sensibly kept out of sight, but did push her husband out into sniper range....

My main reason to be there was to watch the military flypasts. There was promise of a visit from the last Vulcan bomber still to fly. Vulcans are huge delta wing planes with an engine note that jibbles with your innards! It didn't show.....but there were Tornados, Typhoons etc.

Anticipating not being able to gain entry, I took some photos a little earlier so that you lot could see inside.

The National Memorial Arboretum is a 150 acre site with 50,000 trees set within the National Forest. The National Forest is a plan to recover Britain with trees once more. It's only 33,000 acres and so far they've only planted 7 million trees, but it's a good start and there are plans for another 20 million in the next 30 years.

The above statue is, "Shot at Dawn". During World War 1 many soldiers were shot for 'cowardice' or 'desertion' when often they were suffering from post traumatic stress and really had no control over their actions. Each of the posts has the name of a soldier executed by firing squad.

One of my favourite, and the first to be erected on the site is the polar bear representing the 49th West Riding Division.

I love the detail on this carving.

Memorial to maritime gunners.

The RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Association), a non government, volunteer based organisation that has saved countless lives around the coast.

One of the most stark and poignant is the open gate of a concentration camp...