Beauty in the ordinary

Many of our towns, villages, churches and parks contain war memorials, often dating from 'The Great War', WWI (which wasn't really great at all) and some updated with information after WWII. The rather ornate cross, above, is the memorial in Bingley's Myrtle Park, attractively underplanted with colourful begonias. (Says she knowledgeably! I'm not 100% certain of my plant ID skills... ) I understand the cross itself was first erected, on this site, about 1922 and is still the focus of a memorial ceremony on Remembrance Day each year. When they were first installed, these monuments must have provided some sense of comfort to those bereaved in the wars. Now we tend to walk right past them, so ordinary and familiar they are to us. Nevertheless if we stop and pause to look and reflect, there is beauty of a kind there. 

A memorial of a different kind, the new rose arbour has been installed, a walkway in memory of a former Bingley resident. It has been placed where, historically, there used to be a rose arbour, long since disappeared (and where it delightfully frames the war memorial). The five arches have been planted with a pink, scented, climbing rose which should, in time, create a romantic and beautiful 'tunnel of love'.  

We often look for autumn colour in our woodlands, gardens and parks and yet there is also beauty to be found in the ordinary... Here, in a line of trees that screens the town from the busy bypass that runs, in a cutting, right through it. 

Nearby, close to the end of its flowering season and yet still a nice little splash of colour to be enjoyed, bright and bee-friendly annuals have been planted in front of some social housing blocks, instead of the more usual bedding plants