that women should wear their poppy on their right side; the red represents the blood of all those who gave their lives, the black represents the mourning of those who didn't have their loved ones return home, and the green leaf represents the grass and crops growing and future prosperity after the war destroyed so much. The leaf should be positioned at 11 o'clock to represent the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the time that World War One formally ended. He was worried that younger generations wouldn't understand this and his generation wouldn't be around for much longer to teach them.

I'm really pleased to have learnt some things today that I didn't know before, although must admit I've spent a rather obsessive afternoon wanting to rearrange quite a few strangers' poppies...

                                                                                                                                                Karen Lowton