LILAC HAT

For some reason this echinops in the park put me in mind of a hat my Mum used to wear in her younger years (extra). She hated wearing hats and most of them ended up in our dressing-up trunk once the resented occasion was past. She had one particularly awful orange turban which met its demise when one of my younger sisters, dressed as a bonfire, wore it to a fancy-dress party and it was accidentally set alight by someone's cigarette. The fire brigade was called, no-one was hurt and we all had to swear never to tell Mum and Dad.