Dear neglected blog – I never meant to be gone so long. I know blogs aren’t the go-to place that they used to be but I still value mine and use it as a diary of events often. So with that in mind I intend to catch up on the last 4 months beginning with China..

Back in November 2018 we visited Beijing for a week to see our daughter whose studying there.

What we were told to expect was not at all how we found it ourselves. I enjoyed the straight-forwardness of the Chinese. Loved its food culture, historic buildings, paintings, metro system, the fact that it’s totally acceptable to photograph anyone/anything/anytime – even in commercial art galleries selling private artwork, they have a shared love of people watching but without needing to be candid about it and a cultural agreement about the value of the handmade, hand painted. And of course the group dancing in the street to keep fit!

Everything was beautiful, inspiring for painting and pattern and simply new to my eyes and knowledge about Chinese history.

I bought a big stack of rice paper back to emulate the beautiful Chinese painting I saw.

And some textile treasures from the markets beautifully embroidered.

And we were well placed to go see the best remaining section of The Great Wall-cold but fun.

Of course though the very best part was a week with our girl.