Golden glow

The golden glow of autumn on Chobham Common this morning, walking the dogs and gathering sweet chestnuts big enough to roast. It's been a good crop this year.

A Wirral field, forever England?

I'm sure many of you today will have marked Remembrance Day in some way, perhaps at one of the thousands of memorials all over the world. Memorials are important in helping people to focus their thinking on the sacrifices made by previous generations.

So it was saddening to hear from my friend, Simon, yesterday about planned changes to a football field dedicated to the memory of war poet Wilfred Owen and 87 of his fellow pupils from Birkenhead Institute Grammar School who died in the First World War.

The field had been used by Tranmere Rovers football club until it sold it for a housing development. Memorials are supposed to have protection. If you look at the picture in the link, the field is entirely surrounded by housing. The kids who live in these houses would really value this open space. It seems entirely fitting that those young lives lost on battlefields should be remembered in a field where future generations can indulge in healthy sport, not shoot-em-up video games played indoors. In spite of objections by campaigners Wirral Council approved the plans in August.

Shed news: it now has an electric strip light with a switch that switches it on and off. I've never before had a fixed light in my shed. Glad George did the wiring.

Zero hour.
August remembrance blip.