Poppy day: making and memories

It's almost November 11 and poppies are everywhere, tucked into buttonholes, on the front of cars, tied into trees and fixed on the front of cars.

Mark Remembrance Sunday with a knitted or crocheted poppy with this poppy pattern from Woman's Weekly, which also has instructions for making a wreath of them.

If you need a bit of help, watch this YouTube poppy-making video.












Sir Cliff Richard has been knitting poppies this week, being taught to knit by a fan – more on knitting celebrities here, and those who crochet here.

Earlier this year, at the Chelsea Flower Show, I was moved by the carpet of 300,000 crocheted poppies, called 5,000 Poppies. The project was started by Australians Lynn Berry and Margaret Knight, who initially set out to crochet 120 poppies to honour their fathers who both fought in World War II, and the Chelsea garden was created by Phillip Johnson.

More recently, driving towards Calais after a holiday, we passed Etaples military cemetery. We've seen quite a few, but the impact of all those uniform headstones (over 11,000 here) never diminishes. This cemetery was on the site of a hospital, so there are soldiers from many countries and both world wars buried there, as well as some of the nurses who cared for them.

My own great-grandfather's remains are in another cemetery in northern France, and one day I'll go and visit.

One of my favourite screensaver pix: a shot of poppies from my garden.