I hope everyone is doing something in remembrance of, and gratitude to, our service men and women today. It's not raining in Rupert today, so the turn out for the cenotaph service should be pretty good. We owe them huge thanks for their service and sacrifice.

Going to be another quiet day I think - hoping this afternoon to get some stitches into O Canada - I really want to finish that "N" and maybe even my oldest UFO. There needs to be at least some progress when I post my update picture at the end of the month!

The Chimney Sweeper

When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry 'weep' 'weep' 'weep' 'weep?
So your chimneys I sweep, & in soot I sleep.

There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved; so I said,
"Hush Tom never mind it, for when your head's bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."

And so he was quiet, & that very night,
As Tom was asleeping he had such a sight--
That thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe, Ned & Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black;

And by came an Angel who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins & and set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing they run,
And wash in a river and shine in the sun.

Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind.
And the angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father & never want joy.

And so Tom awoke, and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags & our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm;
So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.

William Blake
1757 - 1827