Catherine

"Christmas is a frame of mind", Father Christmas said in Miracle at 34th St. I am not there yet. The sun is shining today and a friend and I sat on blue chairs looking out to a glittering sea soaking in the vitamin D. However, the shops and adverts are making it known that there are only a few weeks left. As we get older, it is isn't the presents but the thoughts that count and a card is always welcome. Over the years we have gone from postage costing more than the gifts, to sending a card, and

"Autumn is the hardest season. The leaves are all falling, and they’re falling like they’re falling in love with the ground', wrote Andrea Gibson. I hear her, others love the idea of anything orange or representing a pumpkin, cups of hot chocolate and big, baggy jumpers and boots. Some of us sigh as the sun gives up, the wind picks up and the rain sets in. I then count 'blue sky' days as at least they are cheerful other than the 'greyness of a quiet Sunday with nothing happening or worth watching and I have read my recent book'

It is Halloween, or All Saints day or All Hallow's day, whatever it means. As we have fewer rituals, others are taken on from the past. The history is all about spirits moving over to another world. Now we have a Hallmarked trick or treat night with pumpkins, costumes, chocolate and candy and everything orange!

Today was the last burst of summer. We said goodbye to soul-cleansing dips in a crystalline sea as lower temperatures are on the horizon. It has been a crazy few months with metaphorical doors closing, others opening and visitors coming and going and boats sailing in and out of the harbour.

It's the first day of October, a month that is neither here nor there but apparently has two eclipses with astrologers predicting growth, revelations and change. Others see it as the last breath of summer with autumn waiting around the corner. The sea is still swimmable and the beach offers a gentle sanity check as throngs of tourists thin out. It is a week of wait and see for several of us and the last heat of the year and daily dose of vitamin D are welcome!

What blue is your blue? Being one of the three primary colours, it sweeps down to deep petrol tones echoing the dark sea-green shades, upwards to a brilliant sky blue, through swirls of turquoise or aqua and then back to the formal, cool tones of navy. Now here comes your history lesson! Blue was one of the first real fabric dyes and the blue gemstone, lapis lazuli, was ground to create the lovely blue and white paint used in Asian ceramics. Prussian blue was created by a German pigment maker and it led to artists embracing the combination of

A birthday was celebrated with good friends, food and wine. We were a melange of French astrophysicists, another French man who would love to be Scottish and adores Wagner, a linguist who heart belongs to weaving past, present and future philosophies and her son who listened with bemusement, amusement and at times, astonishment. Some at the table are at a crossroad of life choices, others are about to take a leap of faith in to their own business, all of us were of an age to regard our history, laugh at past mistakes, gently mourn loved ones and still