Moosey Garden Calendar
What do gardeners make for their friends and relations at Christmas time, when the idea is to make meaningful gifts, created out of love, costing only time? Ha! Colour calendars of scenes from their gardens! A brilliant idea!
First - the selecting of suitable photographs from the thousands on offer. I had very strict criteria - images should be stunning, amazingly beatiful, colourful, tell a story, contain some if not all of the Moosey animals, show off the garden, and include a few shots of the Head Gardener posing shyly. Hmm...
Head Gardener and Lamb
Policy of Seasonal Integrity
But, most importantly, the images had to have been taken during the correct calendar month. There was to be no cheating, with one misty autumn leaf picture, one frosty winter morning scene, and the rest of the photographs sunny and summery, leaping off the page in full frontal colour. Gardening just isn't like that!
Calendar Cover
Now I don't know how fussy other gardeners are regarding accurate dating of calendar photographs of garden scenes. Perhaps they would prefer looking at fluffy pink roses when their own garden is in winter decline. Perhaps they actually don't notice. For gardeners with long, lifeless winters, a reality calendar may be way too gloomy.
Summer or Winter?
And then there's the problem of hemispheres... We get summer, when you get winter, and so on. My friends in the north would think I'd got things all upside down anyway. Photographs of roses on Christmas Day - my glasshouse must be heated?
November Roses
I started off small, and tried out some prototype samples out on a group of guinea pigs. What did they think? I wasn't very encouraged. No, I didn't want to shift Sunday so it came at the end of the row. No, they weren't able to just have cats - this was a garden calendar, they got what they were given.
The Green Wheelbarrow
'Why has June got a picture of a green wheelbarrow?' asked one particularly unimaginative lady. I explained my Policy of Seasonal Integrity - this was the most colourful object in my mid-winter garden, and photographs had to have been taken during the very month they represented. I don't think she understood...
What is Wrong With a Green Wheelbarrow Picture?
Right. I've done it - the first Moosey Calendar is finished. Copies have been home printed, tied up with blue ribbon, and proudly given to my friends and family. Just a few problems with quality control - 'Where's my September?' asked my swimming friend, but she's flexible - she doesn't need September's missing photograph just yet.
Available Soon! Free to a Good Home!
'You could sell it' suggested son-in-law. No way, I say! It will soon be available at the bottom of this very page. Anyone interested will be able to download and print off their own copy - hopefully before the end of the year 2007! It will be absolutely free - anyone who wants money to change hands is welcome to make a small donation to their nearest animal shelter.
Calendar Back Cover
Ha! Please welcome my very first calendar for 2007, complete with Policy of Season Integrity. You'll get cats, roses, flaxes, the Head Gardener, daffodils, the pet lamb, the dog, the garden - and I'll throw in the green wheelbarrow - for free!