Well, here we are. Send for a bugle, it’s the Last Post. Couldn’t decide which image to use, so some friends (you know who you are!) suggested this and very kindly, even took the photograph.

I think any future bloggage will be over at Much of a Muchness from here on in. I haven’t posted over there since September (as the pressure of doing daily posts here sapped my enthusiasm), yet interestingly, I still get three or four times as many readers each day at Much of a Muchness than I do here. I get more readers when I DON’T post. Go figure, as they say. Are you trying to tell me something, guys?

Anyways, it’s been fun and looking back, it’s a good memento of 2010. Here’s to 2011, ‘bye for now!

It has been a difficult week. On 28th December 2010, one of my younger son’s friends passed away unexpectedly aged 24. As you can imagine my son and his friends were devastated. We all were. They are a very close knit group and have been at school and  university together for the best part of 11 years. They still all keep in touch and they regularly go out together, lots of them have ended up working and living in London. Their first thought on hearing the news about Zoe was to be together and in groups, they spent New Years Eve comforting and supporting each other. The time since then, they have all been supporting the family and helping to plan her funeral which was today. What an occasion.

It was a glorious celebration of a young life with so much to offer which was cut so tragically short. If you can judge a person’s worth by their friends then Zoe was rich beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. There must have been 700-800 people in the church today, it was in turns, heartbreakingly sad yet  joyful, tragic yet a wonderful collective celebration of a vivacious, talented, beautiful, much loved young woman who gave so much to everyone she knew and who was so loved in return.

“Zoe brought laughter and life wherever she went. She had a rare combination of left and right brain talents, brilliantly creative and insatiably curious. She was artist, photographer, neuroscientist, scuba dive-master, tutor, social connector, loving daughter, hilarious sister, passionate friend.”

Her father has set up the Zoe Anderson Memorial Fund in her memory, the money raised will help protect an area of coral reef in her name  - you can read more about this wonderful young woman over there.

There was an exhibition of Zoe’s paintings and photography in the church hall and today’s image is of the wall of photographs of Zoe and her friends.

This is a photograph of my automata. I have been collecting them for years from places such as the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre and Dansel Gallery in Dorset. They are made of wood and move in an amusing way when a handle is turned, I love them and would love to have more – but they are expensive because of the amazing imagination and craftsmanship which goes into each one.

This is who Milo and I met on our walk today. Milo couldn’t decide if the horse was a large version of him or he was a small version of the horse. As Milo has delusions of grandeur, I suspect the latter.

I glanced out tof the kitchen window and spotted half a dozen or so ducks sitting on the riverbank opposite my garden. They were all standing in a line, then one would jump in the water, swim about a bit then climb out and stand in the line again. Not sure what was going on but it was very cute to watch.

A sure remedy for the post-festivity, rubbish weather, January blues. The dose to be adjusted to personal taste and accompanied by a really good movie and a warm dog.

Worked for me

When I first started to bind books, I bought leather pieces from Falkiners (now Shepherds) – my favourite place for bookbinding supplies. More recently, I discovered that Pittards in Yeovil, who make beautiful leather for gloves, bags and other leather goods, have a wonderful factory shop where you can pick up whole hides and offcuts and seconds at amazingly cheap prices. The result of this discovery has been, I have collected a small stock of beautiful leather pieces, in a rainbow of colours just waiting to be made into albums or a journals.

I wish that this blog had sound effects, you would be able to hear Milo snoring loudly. His legs keep twitching – he must be dreaming. Let sleeping dogs lie…

Well, you might think that for the first post of the year (and counting down to the end of the blog) that the images I post will be momentous, life enhancing photographs – leave on a high, leave ‘em wanting more kind of thing. But no. I went for a walk, taking my camera and nothing inspired me, my iPhoto library has been emptied of anything vaguely usable, I expect you are all sick to death of shots of Milo, there are no flowers at this time of year, so I give you…….. *drum roll*……my scarf. Enjoy

If I had started this project on New Year’s Day as I was supposed to, this would be my last post. As it is, it is number 356, so I have 9 more to go. So, it’s New Year’s Eve and I wish you all everything you would wish for yourself – and then some more

Have a great evening and a wonderful 2011.