VE Day Celebrations

Well Friday 8th May didn't turn out at all like most of us had planned. Down here in the village there we were supposed to be having a picnic in the local pub's very large beer garden with live music and much celebration. Instead in the tradition of the war we Made do and Mended!

We had decided we were going to cover the house with the allied forces flags, we ordered them 10 days before and by Wednesday we had Russia, France and the USA BUT no British flag.... what were we to do???

Well in this house we never give up, we scream, we shout (well at least I do) and then we formulate a plan. At 4pm on Thursday we gathered any material we could find that was red, white or blue. The white was an old fitted sheet for the base of the flag, the blue was my husband's old(ish) blue shirt and the red was made from a t-shirt each from my sons. Then we got cutting and sticking and by 8pm we had a pretty decent Union Flag - not a Union Jack, that's only when you are at sea!

The next morning Hubby was up at 6am (not unusual for him) hanging out the finished flags and bunting to go along with other houses along the Main Street. What a glorious day we had for the somewhat muted celebrations. At 2.55pm a lone bugler stood in our VE Day remembrance garden and played the Last Post, people came out onto the street but stood the required 2m apart. We were then treated to an hour of 1940s tunes piped through the speakers from theAnchor, we sat in our back garden, 2 doors up from the pub, enjoying the sunshine, feeling thoroughly spoilt to be living in this beautiful village. We had a picnic, egg and cress sandwiches, carrots, cucumber and a ploughman's accompanied by our homemade Mellow Apple and Tomato Chutney and of course CAKE!!!! I considered making a cake in keeping with the rationing of the 1940s but decided we had enough issues without having to miss out on some treats! So a full on chocolate cake with the union flag piped on it made from vanilla buttercream, There's only 3 of us to eat it and it's going to last a while.

The day was a poignant reminder that whatever we are going through now it will be over and life will get back to normal one day just like it did 75 years ago.

Stay safe everyone

Kylie