A wednesday in Ypres

I'm back with new pictures for 2016, and best wishes to you. I am struggling to keep photographing with the work I have, but mostly with the bad weather in these winter months, especially as the natural lights fade as soon as 4 o'clock here in the northern hemisphere!
I have been playing around with an old Pentax I found in the cellar. Here are the results. These pictures were taken in Ypres, Belgium, during the 11.11 ceremonies commemorating the end of the 1st World War. Ypres was a big battlefield during WW1 and 90% of the town was destructed. Today, Ypres remembers the fallen by selling paper poppies.

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.

                      John McCrae, May 1915

Broken Pieces

 

Lovers in the forest

Thomas & Emilie

Family

One evening, somebody suggested we go for a swim all together at the beach near from my grandmother's. It was already quite late and the sky was a delicate pinkish-blue with hints of peach. The water was so high it came right up to the wall, and we undressed quickly and left our clothes there.There was no-one in the water, but people were sat near the edge, talking and laughing. The younger ones dived right in. We all swam together, fifteen of us splashing around, racing and playing. A mixture of young and old, a unique sense of togetherness. We dressed back into our old clothes, shivering, ordered chocolate crêpes from Natasha's and sat on the wall talking and joking until it turned dark and the lights from neighbouring cafés rippled on the water.