Autumn blues (and pinks)

It's officially autumn. I was wearing two layers at the weekend, it was dark when I got home from long days at work at the start of the month, and I'm pretty sure I saw frost on the grass earlier this week.

But as it warmed up this week, I could enjoy the late roses and pink sedum. And butterflies have come out dancing again.

I know some people love autumn - the friends I visited last weekend were happy it's autumn now, and last week when I went to a Write and Shine workshop, a lot of the writers seemed excited or happy or at least gently optimistic about the autumn equinox. When we went round the table, each saying one word that came to our mind when we thought of autumn, I said "sad".

I feel blue when the days get shorter and colder and darker. I feel sad when I see the summer flowers shutting up shop for the year. And my heart sinks a little when I see the Halloween and Christmas things in the shops before the summer is over.

The photos above were taken at Selfridges on a beautiful warm day in August. Christmas comes very early to Oxford Street each year, but it's still strange to see. The David Bowie bauble is pretty cool if you have money to burn. I am sentimental though, so my favourite Christmas decorations are the oldest ones with the fondest memories attached to them.

Today is the big Macmillan coffee morning. This time last year I went to Helen's parents' house where Helen and her mother ran a coffee morning as they had done on previous years. But last year's was poignant - the beautiful young woman in the green Macmillan t-shirt serving us tea, coffee and cake had been diagnosed with terminal cancer six months earlier, and would leave us seven months later. The last few weeks, several of her photos and videos have suddenly brought me to tears. My grief is cyclical and I feel like I'm back at disbelief and deep sadness.

The last few Septembers, Helen's mother and I met at the local allotments and bought dahlias. I love the bundle of dahlias wrapped in newspaper - it reminds me of a passage from the late Jane Packer's book, where she remembers her grandfather bringing allotment dahlias for her grandmother. Last September, I gave flowers for Helen - Darcey David Austin roses (named after her fellow dancer Darcey Bussell) and sunflowers with British lisianthus - and a smaller posy for her mother. I love the deep pink-reds and yellows of the season. The colours almost banish the blues of the shorter days. This year her mother and I meant to go to the allotment open day, but life got in the way.

Tomorrow I'm going on the first Twilight Walk organised by both St Christopher's Hospice and Greenwich and Bexley Hospice, walking around Greenwich and Blackheath. St Christopher's looked after Vicky as an outpatient for a few years and as an inpatient for the last five weeks of her life. Vicky's fundraising page is here. St Christopher's also looked after Helen as an outpatient and at home. Helen's fundraising page is here. And Greenwich and Bexley Hospice is where I've received bereavement counselling for the past year (as I'd worked as a bereavement counsellor at St Christopher's for three years, I couldn't have counselling there because too many people knew me). My sessions are about to come to end, and I'm utterly grateful to the hospice, the bereavement service, and my incredible counsellor for the support they've given me during this wretched year. You can donate to Greenwich and Bexley here.

I hope you have lovely weekends and the sun shines for you.

Age UK Bromley & Greenwich Community Volunteers Time Bank

If you're making a special trip to London to see the poppy display in memory of the soldiers killed in the First World War, it's worth also seeing the First World War galleries at the Imperial War Museum, and the Garden Museum's temporary exhibition (the GM is just up the road from IWM).

As well as the Gardens and War exhibition, there is a display in the Garden Museum of embroidered, printed and painted handkerchiefs, inspired by the memories of gardening in wartime.

The artist Cas Holmes worked with the museum on one of their outreach programmes. The Art Interest Group is organised by Age UK Bromley & Greenwich Community Volunteers Time Bank (CVTB), and with Cas, created a beautiful display in the centre of the museum.

Each handkerchief is so unique, because of the techniques used to create it, and the thoughts and feelings that inspired it.

Today there was a Thrift Fair and Skills Swap, and members of the Age UK Bromley & Greenwich group were there, knitting hats for Innocent drinks, to raise money for Age UK. If you want to knit a hat too, you can still do it here - each hat-topped drink generates 25p for Age UK's Spread the Warmth campaign, providing befriending, warm meals, and emergency support in cold weather for older, vulnerable people.

Tall Ships Festival in Greenwich

There was a festival of tall ships in Greenwich (aka Greenwich Regatta), which finished earlier this week. I went to see them, and I've never seen Greenwich so packed!

A boat ride was a great way to see them (although it meant queuing up for an hour), and it also meant I got to travel along the east side of the river; when I've been on Thames boat rides before, it's always been up to Westminster.

It was exciting to go through the Thames Barrier (which is a bit of a sad confession).

I remember when it opened, and we used to go to the visitor's centre and the cafe some days...a cheap, family afternoon out! Somewhere I have a photo of me and my German penfriend going down the slide together in the early 90s. The slide is still there.

Back to the ships.

The Woolwich Ferry put out the bunting to welcome them.

I've no idea about the history of the different ships; it was just nice to see them.