Calendar Joy

First post of the New Year. I would have written earlier but... Back to work, as well as being too depressed about what is going on in Gaza. Those are the excuses anyway.

But one little piece of joy is hanging up in the kitchen. We made our own calendar this year!


We always like to get a photographic calendar, and over the last few years have got into the habit of buying one with historic photographs of London - the city we love to live in. Te Neues used to produce a nice one, but since last year they have stopped using historic photographs, and now their London calendar just features somewhat arty black and white photos of famous city landmarks. Frankly, we thought we could do just as good a job ourselves. We decided to choose a selection of our own photos to represent our highlights of 2008 - they had to look nice too of course. Thanks to the efficient services of Snapfish, a nice surprise was slipped under the door, waiting for us when we got home from our lovely rural New Year's break in Suffolk (on which more anon)...

So now when we’re pottering in the kitchen we look up and see happy memories of last year. I will admit that there are rather more of Kent’s photos than mine… But he has a much better camera than I do – and, yes, all right, he is a better photographer. This is the photo for this month – a gorgeous limestone capital we saw in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya in Barcelona last May, a wonderful museum which houses such treasures of Iberian Romanesque art, including this one, from 12th-century Catalunya, depicting the Flight into Egypt. A little bit seasonal, you see.

Flight into Egypt (Catalonia, 12th century), MNAC, Barcelona © KR

I hope to share the other pictures with you as the year progresses, as well as other reminiscences along the way.