It is the fashion to look back over the past year at highlights, disasters and anything that takes the author's fancy.  
I have just picked out the pictures that gave me pleasure and hope they will please you.

First up from January a year ago is an evening view from our house looking over Daventry. We are fortunate in being able to enjoy many cloud formations, but this one invokes peace in a colourful setting.

Those who read this blog probably tire of our canal walks; but it is there some of the most tranquil settings of the English countryside are to be found. This is March at Cropredy between us and and Banbury in Oxfordshire.









Another great pleasure, enjoyed since childhood, is the annual visit to the bluebell woods that abound in England. 

Here we have only four or five miles to travel to Badby. 

We can also enjoy man-made beauty. One man's creation in a disused quarry not far from Coventry is a prime example.

Even farmers can sometimes keep our countryside safe. Here is Foxton in Leicestershire in May.

Even where there is no beauty, it is possible to smile at the oddities of life. For me it was the newspaper headline that made the picture

"A MAN who stripped naked on top of a statue in central London appeared in court today charged with possession of an offensive weapon in a public place."

Or perhaps the greatest of pleasures is to laugh out loud. These are grand-daughters Chloe and Leonie snapped for posterity by their mother Alison at the antics of grandson Jack.



















Whatever takes your fancy, it helps to take note of a sign on a seat at Foxton Locks. 

To those unfamiliar with the local language, it reads in English as taught:

    Go steady, but keep going.

Not a bad slogan to wish you well for 2013!