Faded Memory. Poppy, "De Buitenplaats", Eelde, The Netherlands

nobody@flickr.com (Rana Pipiens) — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:20:32 -0700

The larks... I heard them bravely singing on my way along the waters and through the fields to the small museum of modern art 'De Buitenplaats' at Eelde, south of the City. The museum also has a small but delightful garden. Seeing a bed of poppies I couldn't but be reminded of "In Flanders fields the poppies blow...". The emotional poem - including a 'lark line' - by John McCrae (1872-1918) commemorates the tens of thousands who fell in Flanders in the First World War. It's engraved upon the hearts of many who were schoolboys when I was. In Commonwealth countries, of course, Red Poppies are still worn around Remembrance or Armistice Day annually in November.
This week there's another Commemoration, though, that I care to remember. It's 444 years ago that here in the north a fierce battle was fought that marks the very beginning of the Eighty Years War by which the Netherlands gained independence from Spain.. The combat took place in peated areas of Heiligerlee to the north of Groningen in what was then still called Friesland. The commander of the King's army, Jean de Ligne, duke of Arenberg (1525-1568) lost his life. And William the Silent's younger brother Adolf (1540-1568), commander of the Dutch together with his older brother Louis, was also killed. Adolf is commemorated in one of the stanzas of the Dutch national anthem.
I fear though, that only very few Dutch people - who are by and large utterly un-nationalistic with only a small historical 'memory' - willl have given that battle or Adolf a thought this week.
Indeed, these events took place long, long ago. So this Pink is more appropriate for my purposes than the Very Red of the poppies for the First War less than a century ago...

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Faded Memory. Poppy, "De Buitenplaats", Eelde, The Netherlands