No more eggs ~ Memorial Day 2011

This morning we got up and found that the nest on the end, the one I sent the picture of, is empty! No eggs, not anywhere. They were there yesterday and poof! Gone! The little ones are a little upset but unfortunately that is nature. I don't know what would get them so up high like that and they are enclosed among all those plants. An owl, a rat? We don't know but the other nest still has 4 eggs in it and hopefully will be okay. We'll keep watching. Scott is going to move his mirror contraption to the middle so he can view this one without bothering mama bird.
On another note, Jeff took the children minus the baby, to a Memorial Day celebration in town. It was the 20th celebration to take place here. Singing; speeches; color guard; helicopter fly-by; and more made up the program. There were people there wearing red poppies. A poppy is to remember. According to the program there were some Bataan March survivors there! Memorial Day actually started after the Civil War; it was Confederate Memorial Day; the people wanted to remember their fallen from the war. Later it was adopted as a national holiday by all the states to honor not just the fallen in battle but all veterans and service men and women who have died in the line of duty or passed away from other causes. Confederate Memorial Day is still celebrated. When we are in Charleston in May we usually go to a ceremony in Mt. Pleasant at a cemetery there where Civil War soldiers are buried. It typically is the 10th of May or whatever Saturday is closest to that. I'll leave you with a poem we did a study on and memorized last year when we were studying World War I using the Epikardia curriculum. http://www.epikardia.com/ During WWI is when the poppy became a prominent symbol for remembering those lost in battle.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Lt. Col. John McCrae

Physician, Canadian Army 1915, France