June 2023 - Long Days, Pilgrimages Made, Stories Shared At our Table - Al
Posted on 30th June 2023 by Julie and David Thomson in General News.
June - Flaming June at times, other times stormy and showery, the weather has kept us on our toes this month – that, along with all the other things keeping us busy but happy at No.fifty6.
After a very dry Spring and a few days of rain in May, it has been a drier, hotter than average June, though we have had some rain too in the form of heavy thunderstorms. On hot days all we could do was search the shade.
It is drier than normal and the tracks and roadways of the Somme remain dry and dusty. The rain has however let the crops in the fields flourish and green of various hues blankets the land – potatoes in flower, maize growing, wheat nearly ready for harvesting - that cycle of agriculture continuing.
As we write this month’s newsletter we think, as always, of the soldiers who would be in the trenches, under the artillery bombardment which continued in the week leading up to 1 July 1916. How did they stand the noise, the vibration, the fear, the waiting….? Letters written home, photos looked at one last time. Some, like John William (Will) Streets, wrote poetry:
