One of the two ATC swap groups that I enjoy participating in in through RosesOnMyTable. The next swap is about cats! How perfect could that be for me?! These are painted with acrylic and ink on fabric, and backed with a batik - with my favorite Fast2Fuse in the middle. I'm happy with how they turned out and may make another set just to have on hand for fun 1 on 1 swaps that happily pop up from time to time.
My next challenge theme for ATC's is cracked .. cracked up, cracked open, cracked eggs, tectonic plates? I have not come up with a good enough idea for these yet.... so I have to spend some more time mulling it over before I get to work. Tomorrow I want to play - have paint on my hands and thread and fabric clinging to my clothes. Ah! A good day it will be.
James Odell, John Blaise and William Hoyt Ellery WWII
Happy Memorial Day to all of us in the US . My prayers are offered tomorrow to all of the men and women who serve in every country's armed forces. Although I am in no way a supporter of wars I do respect the service of these very brave men and women who all work tirelessly and unselfishly to make my wish for having a day to play possible. I pray that that they will all return to their families soon and that they will all enjoy many days to play in the near future. Namaste.
My maternal, much loved, grandparents with my uncles. The youngest Billy in Grandpa's arms, Jack between the adults and Uncle John (Jack) Blaise Ellery is in uniform
This reference is about my Uncle John Ellery ...who was a Sergeant on Omaha Beach on D-Day. With this invasion, the last days of the Nazi Third Reich were at hand. Ellery described his ordeal in his own words:
"Weather had been bad. The invasion had been delayed 24 hours…The Seas was rough and when you got to the beach, you still had between 300 and 400 meters of ground to cover and when you got through that you were at the bottom of a bluff that I estimate was 50 feet high. You were under fire from the time you were within a mile of the point you were going to drop the ramp of your LCVP [landing craft]. To this day I don't understand where the men got the courage. I suppose we'll never know the total number of casualties. In my assault section, we had eight men killed and 17 wounded out of the 32 men by the time we cleared the high ground."
He was a hero to me - and to out country. My uncle is also mentioned in books about D-Day, including
"The Victors: Eisenhower and His Boys: The Men of World War II by Stephen Ambrose and also "D-Day, June 6,1944: The Climatic Battle of World War II" by the same author. My other two uncles, were also in the services. Billy in the Air Force and my beloved James in the Army. Thankfully they all came home. John (Jack) had two purple hearts that I am aware of and my grandmother never liked telephones - since she always feared the bad news that sometimes was carried by them. I can really understand that too.
3 comments:
Beautiful ATC cards. Love the colors!
Just wanted to say your cats are totally cool...I love the way you draw :) They are stylized so nicely!
By coincidence, I was at the Am Military Cemetary at Omaha Beach on Memorial Day and encountered a quote of your uncle engraved on the wall of the new (2007) visitor's center. In fact, the first wall everyone passes on their way into the Center. By additional coincidence, I think I knew Jack--were he and his family in Sierra Leone in the mid60s? jeff@jtwack.com
Post a Comment