27 September 2024

27 September 2024 tidy up visit

A visit to tidy the site up a bit. Visitors sometimes leave items in memory of the crew which is a very nice thing to do. But many of these are made of plastic which, over time, break up into small pieces but of course don’t disappear altogether. Nylon poppies fade in the sunlight and get blown across the moor, polystyrene poppy wreath bases disintegrate and the plastic ones break up into sharp shards.

I love seeing the US flag at the site of ‘Over-Exposed!’ but they don’t last long. My previous visit was on 02 August and I photographed the site with the flag billowing in the breeze, it looked great. Nearly two months later it was shredded into pieces, weighted down with stones.

Sheep graze on these moors of course, plus it looks a bit of a mess hence the tidy-up. When I next revisit I may take a new US flag unless someone beats me to it, but will revisit later to replace or remove it.

I didn’t remove anything from the site which had a personal message on it. For example, there was a well-made and varnished poppy cross with personal message and this was fixed to the wreckage with a cable tie. Also a bunch of flowers with a card and a painted stone with a message on it. I also didn’t remove any of the wooden poppy crosses or other crosses which will naturally degrade over time.