Never forgotten in Leopoldsburg, Belgium …

In recent years on Christmas Eve, some of the town’s people of Leopoldsburg in Belgium have held a ceremony at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery.

There are 767 Commonwealth burials from WWII in the cemetery, 16 of them unidentified, and also a number of Polish and Dutch war graves. One of the graves belongs to my relative Hugh Wright, a Royal Engineer attached to the 49^th Infantry Division (The Polar Bears). Hugh was killed in Wuustwezel, Belgium on 21 October 1944.

The photos below were sent to me tonight from Belgium ~ thank you Cindy from Leopoldsburg, who regularly visits and cares for Hugh’s grave. 

You can learn more about Hugh and his war service from the following blogs, click on the images or links …

https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2017/10/hugh-wright.html

 

https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2024/06/euro-2024-wuustwezel.html

https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2024/06/euro-2024-my-return-to-leopoldsburg-war.html

Splashing time at Rissers …

Overnight we had some fierce winds, during which there were times I thought the house would take off. By late morning they had settled down and moved out to sea. At such times it is always good to head down the road to Rissers Beach to check out the big waves, I was not disappointed ….

At the end of the beach in a more sheltered area, it was like this ...

Winter Coat …

For me there are two seasons in the year, warm weather and cold weather. Over the last few weeks, I have been transitioning from warm to cold weather clothes. The drill is very similar every year, the first change is going from shorts to jeans, followed soon after with a swap from tee shirts to sweat shirts. Much later the light jacket comes out, which occasionally could be in the company of waterproof hiking boots over running shoes. It becomes a little more significant when gloves are required on my daily wanders, and extremely alarming when the wooly hat is a must to keep my ears warm. The final link to the warm season is when the winter coat comes off the rack, which happened for this afternoon's beach wander. It will not be too long before the reverse will (hopefully) begin, sometime from mid to late March.

Below are photos taken on the winter coat’s first cold season outing ...