Bach at Dillington Hall

This weekend is a new experience for me. I have relied on Michael for fifty years to tell me what is what in music. When he died, I slowly realised my tastes were quite different. I did not mind his taste in music (Hadyn quartets) but I did not choose it myself. It took me several years to realise that the only Bach CDs we owned were ones I had bought. And there were not many of them. A few of instrumental  music, the Christmas Oratorio and that was about it. So by consulting the BBC archives of Building a library, I acquired a few more but got stuck on the cantatas. Then I bought Castle in Heaven by John Eliot Gardiner. 

And now I am at a Manor House in deepest Somerset on a Bach Weekend. And as an extra treat, I have just attended a harpsichord recital. The trouble is I used to play one before my hands gave up and now all this familiar music is rumbling about in my head. 

In another thirty minutes, it will be off to hear another lecture on Bach. All very intellectual. I am just about keeping up. Seven lectures each of at least ninety minutes!

I should say the Manor House is splendid, honey coloured sandstone, built in the early seventeenth century. Complete with camellias in flower and a magnolia grandiflora and a croquet lawn. Food is distinctly moreish. Photos have been taken but I have not brought the transfer mechanism. 

But I have thought about textiles. I am thinking about the Children of Lir and wondering if I could make and print Lino cuts, scan them into Photoshop, turn them into Thermofaxes and screen print a warp. Kennet Valley guild is having a big exhibition thei autumn and the theme is boxes. I have one in Perspex and could wrap the Children of Lir round it. Mull over it a bit longer.