From my Desk
Looks like winter is here . I don ' t know about anyone else , but I love the cold nights . Snuggle under the doona and sleep comfortably . My idea of heaven on earth .
It ' s time to check the electric blanket and all heating devices for fire safety . It ’ s also the time to stock up on hot chocolate and marshmallows .
There are still plenty of activities to get involved in , in Hay . June long weekend will see a multitude of visitors in town for the Dustdrinkers Ball , Mini Nationals and June Bowls Carnival .
Skydive Oz is coming to Hay on the 7th June . Apparently it ’ s an “ experience you ’ ll never forget .” Printed Post would love to hear from anyone who does the jump , to share your thoughts .
Catch you ‘ round the town
Contact Printed Post : 02 6993 2016 0437 044 930 susanjohnston01 @ bigpond . com
Sue
Thanks to Gail Rosewarne for contributing this poem
In Flanders Fields
By : Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae , MD ( 1872-1918 ) Canadian Army
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 was a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade , at Ypres .
http :// www . arlingtoncemetery . net / flanders quotes John as having said " I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days ... Seventeen days of Hades !”
One death particularly affected McCrae . A young friend and former student , Lieut . Alexis Helmer of Ottawa , had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May 1915 . Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae ' s dressing station , and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain .
The next day , sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l ' Yser , just a few hundred yards north of Ypres , McCrae vented his anguish by composing the poem .
In the nearby cemetery , McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe , and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling the lines of verse in a notebook .
The poem was very nearly not published . Dissatisfied with it , McCrae tossed the poem away , but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England . The Spectator , in London , rejected it , but Punch published it on 8 December 1915 .
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P . O . Box 482 , Hay , NSW 2711 PH : 0428 579 621
Email : truckmadme @ hotmail . com
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