Halloween - my Grandfather's birthday. He was born in 1898 just a couple of hundred yards away from my old house. The whole day is suffused with memories of him as I was growing up. Halloween was more about celebrating his birthday - the dressing up and dooking for apples was just part of the fun.

I felt a bit lonely and isolated at one point today - thinking about all those times when everyone in my family lived close by, and gatherings were frequent. Now it's just me and the boy. It was just a passing feeling, really. A nostalgia for a place and time - of things no longer…

The day was quiet, weather a bit stormy in the afternoon. It was nice to have that extra hour of light in the morning, and to kindle the fire earlier. It feels right, somehow - the slower rhythm of Greenwich Mean Time.

Had a nice dinner, and a dessert, as it was Sunday. I enjoyed a lovely zoom knit night and got a few rows done on the boy's jumper. Starting a new book tonight. November tomorrow.