The blankets covering the Duomo

square in Milan have been made in support of women's rights

  

The photo came from someone at the RAI - the equivalent of the BBC I think. He thought I "might be interested".

I am interested for a number of reasons. I would love to have a very close look at the blankets to see the many ways in which they have been made. That's unlikely to happen.

I would also be interested to know a lot more about the project. Who thought of it? How was it started? Why did they want to do it? How was it organised? How did they encourage so many people to contribute? What is going to happen to all those blankets?

Answers to those questions would really interest me. They would interest me because I am involved in a similar but very small project. It would have been wonderful to have a similar degree of interest in this. It didn't happen of course. I live in a country which has a much smaller population. It is much more spread out. There is not much call for blankets in the north of the country. Many people here have never learned to knit or crochet or sew. They would have no idea how to make a blanket or even participate in making a small part of one.  It has been good that there are people who have been willing to participate by making squares that can be put together.

Our blanket squares will go towards a charity which supports the environment. Within that we are asking that the funds we eventually raise will go towards renewing the vegetation on which the all important Ligurian bee population lives. Their survival is vital to our survival.

Looking at all those incredibly colourful and diverse blankets I thought of the way in which women have often been responsible for the flowers in gardens, the flowers which provide the nectar for the bees. Our survival depends on women's rights in many ways.