Listening and Stitching

A lovely day, but quite a wind. I got washing out, made a batch of biscuits and then went to the Hay Festival. I watched three excellent talks - Elif Shafak, whose book ‘Island of Missing Trees is shortlisted for the Women’s Prize, talked about a range of things including the dangers of extreme nationalism and the value of fiction in terms of emotional understanding. The wonderful Bernadine Evaristo and then the excellent Alice Roberts, both so erudite in their own fields - fabulous people. 

I have had a fascinating ten days of talks with my Hay Pass, but just hope I can go in person next year. 

I do stitch whilst I’m listening/watching. And these are the last three flags/postcards I have done. I don’t like figurative work, much preferring the abstract playing with fabric and thread, but I was determined to keep to the brief. So my interpretations of ‘flower’, ‘toadstool’ ‘crown’. 

I must share the extra - our younger daughter has a great dress sense (no idea where she gets it from, not from me!) but this photo taken at a (posh) restaurant in Paris (they are there for the tennis) shows how to dress for the background.