Hello from Virginia!
Peter is fulfilling his childhood fantasy of having flagpoles in front of the house. These are the flags that we flew back on Thanksgiving Day. Hungary and Turkey are obvious, but why Taiwan? Well, we normally would use China, but this was Thanksgiving, so we used the *good* China.
On a more somber note, this was our display on December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day. The US flag has 48 stars, which was the official number in 1941. The middle flag is the state of Arizona. Approximately half of the Americans who died that day were aboard the battleship USS Arizona when it exploded and sank. The third one is the modern flag of the US Navy Department.
Here is what we flew over the holidays. The one on the nearest pole is the flag of Christmas Island, an Indian Ocean territory of Australia (note the stars of the Southern Cross in the blue triangle). The signal flags spell out "peace" and "joy" in the International Code of Signals. Note that the flag for the final "e" in "peace" is a substitute pennant, which repeats the second flag of the hoist. This is what you do when you don't have enough "e"s.
This was New Year's Day. Three nations have national holidays on January 1st -- Slovakia, Taiwan and Haiti. Unfortunately, we didn't have a Haitian flag, so the third pole has "2007" in ICS. (Hard to read because of the lack of wind.) Next year we'll get it right!
Finally, here's a "typical" arrangement. The middle flag is the state of Virginia, and the right-hand one is the new flag of Annandale. Peter worked with the committee that designed the Annandale flag. They're at half-mast for President Ford.
As you know, Sunday (January 14th) is a *very* important day in the Rouse family. We'll post a picture of Sunday's flags -- let's hope there's enough wind. Stay tuned . . . .
Peter & Mary
