I am getting bored of the torrential rain showers. The kitchen is awash with muddy dog paw prints,Albert has tastefully dotted his wet feet over the table,windowsills and work tops and everywhere feels damp and dirty. I am so frustrated with it all I could spit!I have emptied the wet straw from the pig hut and have filled it completely with fresh warm bedding, then filled each coop in turn with warm dry sawdust ( a gift from the red faced welsh farmer!), so at least most of the animals remain warm and dry.
The beach was so windswept that I was the only person in sight, so the dogs had a huge, cold gallop for miles along the sodden sand.
By the car park I noticed these floral tributes attached to one of the slipway signs. Apparently last year an elderly fisherman had gone into the water in an effort to recapture his small dingy and had gotten into difficulties and had died in the cold water.
Public displays of grief, such as these flowers are still not thought to be the "done thing" in Britain, I always think. There seems to be an innate snobbery by some that regard tributes as a "little bit common"....Reactions to disasters such as 9/11, Hillsborough and even with Princess Diana's death, where carpets of flowers, poems and cards literally covered everything in sight seemed to have opened the floodgates for public shows of emotion, and everywhere I go, little shrines of sadness can be found at kerbside or half hidden away on fences and road signs.
I have no problem with tributes like these. I just find them all rather sad, and certainly on days like today, rather forlorn.
If the relatives and friends of the departed find solace in leaving a few flowers and card, what is the harm of it?....hummm? Mind you, I suspect the jobsworth brigade in the local council department will be enforcing bylaws outlawing them at some stage, quoting the dreaded health and safety legislation......
hummm, the bad weather has soured my mood me thinks..........on nights tonight too!!! hey ho!
Hi John, my Aunt and my cousin where killed in a car crash several years ago, by 4 stoned, thieving scum of the earth, Jeremy Kyle show regulars in a police chase which viered into my relatives car. When visiting Liverpool a year later i passed the point where they died and saw flowers had been laid. I remember thinking how stupid it was as i didnt want to be reminded of the scene of the crash, but only how they once was.
ReplyDeleteI read the tributes which where touching but thought it would have been better at their final resting place and the cynic in me thought all the interflora's of the world must be busy. It did remind me of Jamie Bulger case which was across the road from Mums when all you could see was acres of bunches of flowers. I oersonally dont like it.
Hope your weather improves soon.
ReplyDeleteinteresting point geoffry!
ReplyDeleteThat is a lot of work you have to do to keep your animals dry. You sure do need a break in the wet weather. We have the flower or ribbon and bow memorials along roadsides too. There are also crosses set along the roadside where accidents happened. Personally, if I had to pass the spot I would not want to be reminded. With the amount of people killed on the highway I suppose I can expect to see "tributes" every few feet eventually.
ReplyDeleteIt’s interesting how this practice appears to have re-emerged more noticeably in the last decade or so. The practice of tree-dressing clearly has antecedents in the English civil war (and, I think, US history), although the symbolic practice of adorning the tree obviously has far deeper routes in English and European pagan/celtic traditions, and is still practiced today, albeit in various ways.
ReplyDeleteWhat is intriguing is the re-emergence of this particular tradition in the modern, urban and tree-less context. Whilst many of the ‘traditional’ folk practices (for instance, Derbyshire well-dressing) have been recently ‘rediscovered’ and colonised predominantly by the middle classes, the ‘street bouquets’ that you’re referring to above appear to appeal to a wider group of folk and a deeper historical sentiment.
I have no personal association, although I do understand that the practice is understood as being somewhat mawkish and overly sentimental to some modern eyes.
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ReplyDeletetee hee.,.....I always feel like a thick sh*t when Nige writes an explaination.....
ReplyDeletehis words are always beautfully chosen!!
ta chuck