Comfort and/or Joy - December 2023

December is a busy month, so thanks for finding the time to send in your photos on the theme of "comfort and/or joy". Here they all are:

Don - Comfort & Joy at Christmas

John

Ken 

Rosie sent in three photos of "Christmas in Devon":

+ an extra one!

Rosie - my baby's 17th birthday cake - you are never too old for unicorns!

Keith - A Nativity with donkeys and audience participation, 

always brings Comfort and Joy! 

Gaynor was across  Irish Sea in Sandymount for her comfort and joy at Christmas:

Gaynor - comfort & buoys!

Sue - which one is most comfortable?

(there is joy in the way the dogs relate to each other)

Sue - Joy!

Kate - Comfort was more available and cheaper than Joy this Xmas! 

Kate - the comfort of underfloor heating!

Kate - .... and the joy of the beach!

Many thanks for all your efforts throughout the year - and in preceding years!

January will be our 61st topic!  Janus was the Roman god of transitions and dualities - widely regarded as the god of beginnings.  He is depicted as having 2 heads - one facing forward and one facing backward.

So for your January topic I have chosen "Faces"

KIT - December 2023

Today's KIT (the 54th!) was played out between:

Nigel, Arthur, Ken and Andy + Rosie, Emma, Lois P and Gill

The rain actually stayed away - we even had to cope with bright sunshine for the whole morning's competition! 

It was great fun as usual and the "round-robin" matches resulted in a final between:

Rosie & Arthur v Emma & Ken

It turned out to be the closest final we have had for many years, with Emma & Ken just managing to win in the end:

Emma and Ken - KIT winners, Dec 2023

Buildings that inspire - November 2023

 Here are all your photos on the theme of "Buildings that inspire" - there are quite a few multiple ones this month:

Here are four from Gill to start with :

"Some photos of Omar Sharif’s house which he only owned for 24 hours having bought it, then played bridge and lost it, and never returned to Lanzarote again!

It’s a very quirky house built into the cave, not at all practical!"

And here are another four from Steve, who wasn't at all inspired by Clifton Cathedral!

"On the basis that it has a spire, it should have been inspiring, but a disappointment monument to someone’s ego, more aptly … in brutalist concrete" 

Here is one from Kate:

"Trip to London last week. St Paul’s  is always inspiring (or is it “ indoming”?)"

.... and a couple from Keith from the other side of the globe!

Keith - St Saviours, Karubda Village, Cairns, Australia..Anglican.... 

Keith - Sri Mariamman in Singapore 

.... and these two from Don:

Don - The quintessential English village church of St Nicolas’s, Chawton.

Don - Spinnaker Tower - a spire to inspire!

John - Buildings that inspire…. Man shed on the allotment! 

Gaynor - 19th century, Jesus College student accommodation.  

21st century crane/brains. 

Gaynor - Buildings that inspire - Magdalene College 

Gaynor - 15th century chapel, 21st century scaffolding

Sue - singing in this building is inspirational!

Ken - St Pancras station, complete with their literary version of a Christmas tree!

Jan - 3D constructions by Grandson! He’s running out of space in his bedroom!!

***

Many thanks to you all for your various interpretations of this month's topic.

Your topic for December will actually be, rather amazingly, our 60th one! 

We started back in October 2018 with this:  

Our first topic!

And so, with Christmas in mind, your December topic is:

"comfort and/or joy"

The Greek Elements - September/October 2023

Our topic for the last two months has been the Greek elements of Fire, Air, Water and Earth -  and here are our submissions!

Sue - where water meets the land

Steve - Green, Yellow, Red, Blue : Earth, Air, Fire and Water

(Psst ! There may be a shark in here!)

Ken - earth (our compost heap)

Ken - fire (stained glass in the church at Hinton Ampner)

Ken - water (at Alresford)

Ken - air (the view from our back garden in Thorpe Gardens just before we left)

Andy - fire, water, earth and air at Albufere Nature Reserve near Valencia

Don - celebrating Malta’s National Independence Day on September 21st 

with firework reflections over Sliema bay

Gill - a long line of satellites flying over the earth 

Kate - Ted's pumpkins (grown on my allotment and carved by Ted)

Kate - Crosby Sands - air, water and earth

Gaynor - a fire & water fountain at Houghton Hall in Norfolk

To help you appreciate this photo I have added a video of the feature here - if any adverts pop up, just press "skip ads"

Gaynor - a James Turrell installation at Houghton Hall in Norfolk

Stacey - Supertrees in "Gardens by the Bay" in Singapore

and our topic for November, inspired by Radio 4's programme "Building Soul" is:

"Buildings that inspire"