Picnics, Poppies, and Patriots

I guess if I were going to claim an official holiday of 2013,

 it would have to be Memorial Day.

After all, my  color of the year this year

 is a pop of red,

 otherwise known as  poppy. 

And  the poppy, of course, 

is the traditional flower of Memorial Day. 

When I found these bowls earlier in the year to celebrate my
  poppy theme,

I also thought they would be perfect  Memorial Day dishes. 

So I was pretty excited when Cuisine Kathleen 

announced her May challenge for Let's Dish! 

to be a Memorial Day table.

We wanted the poppy bowls to the focal point
so we kept the rest of the place setting simple
 with red and blue stoneware
 and a white charger.  

A single piece of red Stemware on some
crafty decoupaged coasters. 
. 

Casual red flatware

 and a blue checked cloth turn it into a picnic.  

The centerpiece is actually more of a backdrop on this one.
 We wanted it to tell a story.

It reflects the way we celebrated Memorial Day

in the little village where I spent my childhood.

Parades...
Picnics...
.
Pots of red geraniums and flags to decorate the graves of the fallen.

The laying of wreathes 

And the two poems which inspired the use of
poppies for remembrance.
  

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow,

Between the crosses, row on row...

And that's about it.

I don't really have much else to yak about where this table is concerned,
but maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Memorial Day isn't really a time for filling up the silence.

It's a time to reflect in the silence,
and to remember.

And to honor those patriots who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

How will you be remembering them this year?


*****
Also sharing with Tablescape Thursday