Now you might think this is a bit too early, but today I’m going to talk about our approach to Christmas cards.
First of all (and let’s get this out of the way) unlike many people we still send real Christmas cards. Not e-cards, and not a donation to charity instead. We do this because we like to, and feel it is a good way of keeping contact with friends and family. We also do it because, as you’ll see, we believe our approach adds value to people’s lives – and the evidence tends to support this.
Since 2005 we have created our own Christmas cards – that’s 17 years, including this year. But they are not traditional cards. Instead they are postcards. Many years they’re A5 size; some years DL or square. Each year, a new card.
I’ve included a few examples below, and I’ve also created a full gallery.
Many years the image on the front has been one of my photographs – and it’s quite fun choosing which one to use. A few years we’ve used an image of a piece of art we own (as long as it’s out of copyright). And a few years one of my late mother’s paintings.
But, you say, this is expensive. Well actually it isn’t; it’s a lot cheaper than buying traditional cards, and a lot simpler. OK, in the early years it did feel expensive as we were using a specialist postcard printer; that tended to cost £150 to £200 for 500 A5 cards (so 30p to 40p per card) which was at least competitive compared with traditional cards.
The last few years we’ve used VistaPrint and designed and ordered online – having done it once it is really easy and quick to do again. This year the cost has been £67 for 500 A5 cards (or just over 13p each). Even allowing for the fact that we’ll use only about half of them that’s still only 27p each. Now tell me where one can get good cards at under twice that price. (OK, they still cost a horrid amount in postage, but so would anything.)
But the advantage doesn’t stop there. For a start there’s the fact that we create a postcard; with an image on one side and a greeting on the other. There’s still space for personalising the card, and for an address label. They’re also relatively light weight, thus saving on overseas postage. With printed address labels and no envelopes, they are easy and fiddle-free to write.
On top of which everyone gets something special – and many people tell us they love receiving our cards and often keep them to enjoy. And of course we have the spare cards in stock for later years when we may not be able to produce a new card.
We ordered this year’s cards over last weekend and standard (free) delivery was expected to be in about 2 weeks. The cards arrived on Wednesday (so in 3 working days), and that is typical of VistaPrint‘s service over the years. But you’ll have to wait to see it as the design is staying under wraps for a while yet.
What’s not to like?
Our September collection of recently encountered quotes.
Bulut et al. found that sex could indeed improve nasal congestion as effectively as nasal decongestant for up to 60 minutes, returning to baseline levels within three hours. Granted, a good 12-hour nasal spray would last much longer, but it’s less fun. And some people might experience adverse effects from nasal spray, so having a natural substitution method for congestion would be helpful. The authors hope that there will be further studies to investigate whether masturbation has a similar effect for singletons.
[2021 Ig Nobel Awards, as reported at https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/09/feline-acoustics-the-smell-of-fear-and-more-receive-2021-ig-nobel-prizes/
Downing Street was first built in 1680 by Sir George Downing: an unscrupulous, brutal, and miserly man – which is rather fitting, given that the street which bears his name has been the home to so many politicians.
[https://historiclondontours.com/tales-of-london/f/of-mice-men]
Photographs are diary entries … That’s all they can be. Photographs are just documentations of a day’s event. At the same time, they drag the past into the present and also continue into the future. A day’s occurrence evokes both the past and the future. That’s why I want to clearly date my pictures. It’s actually frustrating, that’s why I now photograph the future.
[Nobuyoshi Araki (Japanese cult street-photographer), 10 February 2012]
Photography is lying, and I am a liar by nature. Anything in front of you, except a real object, is fake. Photographers might consider how to express their love through photography, but those photographs are “fake love”.
[Nobuyoshi Araki (Japanese cult street-photographer)]
Photography, well, not so much photography but life itself, is nostalgia I realized, having seen these moments: in this day and age of digital media, in the centre of Tokyo you see these sticks, right, they take these sticks and chase around crayfish and carp. Boyhood memories and stuff, that sort of nostalgia is the most important thing in life.
[Nobuyoshi Araki (Japanese cult street-photographer), March 2011]
If you have some sort of illness, disability, or are crippled – use that to your benefit. You also might not live in the most interesting place in the world, you might not have the best camera, and you might not have much free time – but these are all “creative constraints” which you can use to your benefit. It is all about your attitude, mindset, and the way you see life.
[Eric Kim at https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2016/08/10/12-lessons-araki-has-taught-me-about-photography/]
As photographers in the West, we are trained to shoot with prejudice. We are told to only photograph interesting things. But in the East, they are a lot less discriminating. A lot of the Eastern philosophy sees everyday and ordinary life as interesting and meaningful.
[Eric Kim at https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2016/08/10/12-lessons-araki-has-taught-me-about-photography/]
It must be kami [god]. What makes a photographer take a picture? What makes an artist paint a picture? It can’t really be explained. It’s a kind of instinct or impulse.
[Nobuyoshi Araki (Japanese cult street-photographer)]
I’m trying to catch the soul of the person I’m shooting. The soul is everything. That’s why all women are beautiful to me, no matter what they look like or how their bodies have aged.
[Nobuyoshi Araki (Japanese cult street-photographer)]
The Scientific advancements of the seventeenth-century and beyond were not something that occurred because an apple fell on Newton’s head. They were a part of a long tradition of scientific thought and inquiry that people just haven’t bothered learning about because the history is too complex for smug think tank guys to wrap their heads around in five minutes between power lunches.
[Dr Eleanor Janega on Going Medieval blog]
Moreover, medieval Europeans were absolutely committed to maintaining communal health, whether through sensible (and at times perhaps too harsh) social distancing, as we can see in the medieval treatment of lepers … medieval people were acutely aware of the necessity for providing for people suffering from an illness and also of keeping the general population separated from them.
[Dr Eleanor Janega on Going Medieval blog]
Yet we are still seeing several hundred deaths every week. In effect, it is as if a jumbo jet was crashing every few days. This is a toll of suffering and misery that, we are told, we must simply live with. After all, we have lived for many years with large increases in deaths every winter. Why are we suddenly getting so concerned? Yet we ignore how some other European countries, especially Nordic ones, have maintained high building standards and ensured that large numbers of their older population are not living in poverty, thereby avoiding this seasonal toll. But maybe the politicians have a point. Where was the public clamour as life expectancy of older people in the United Kingdom stagnated or declined during the 2010s?
[Prof. Martin McKee writing in BMJ, 14 September 2021]
The government says that its first duty is to keep people safe. This is the rationale for spending money on defence. It can, of course, decide that it no longer wants to assume the responsibility for safeguarding us from threats to health. But if it does, it should at least be honest about it.
[Prof. Martin McKee writing in BMJ, 14 September 2021]
Suddenly in the last week or so, our garden is awash with flowers – especially roses. And I’ve been playing with the new macro lens for my “proper” camera. Here are the first few results.
