No prizes for guessing what I'm up to this weekend... if you're in the area you might want to get up to it too!

1/2

The boy hits 6 months this weekend. I know people don't generally celebrate half birthdays but we're told it's a significant milestone on the journey of parenthood... it's also an excellent excuse to thank friends and family for some of their beautiful gifts. Keep 'em coming!

  

Svalbard

So saddening to see the probable fate of the UK's Ash trees turn ever more certain with steady spread of Chalara fraxinea, or Ash Dieback. Maybe it's because trees occupy that time-frame somewhere between the human life-span and deep geological time that we imbue the landscape they create with something like permanence.

When Charles Raymond (of Joy of Sex fame) completed these illustrations in 1973 the Elm was falling prey to the disease that decimated their population. Still, it's heartening to know, irrespective of our blunders here on the surface, all known horticultural specimens form part of Svalbard Global Seed Vault, interned 120 meters beneath a Norwegian sandstone mountain.

Radio On

The BBC celebrate 90 years of radio this week and, given the choice, we'd all be listening in on Jacob Jensen's colourful old Beolit 707 while we print... shame they're either all busted-up or bucket-loads of money!

Yay

I do enjoy a topical post, no matter how tenuous, so when it came time to congratulate the US on Obama's second term, where better to look than The Museum of American Folk Art's 1983 book, Expressions of a New Spirit? As you might expect, there's a heap of beautiful quilts and these lovely newspaper patterns for a Bird of Paradise bridal piece (1858-63).

The 5th

Remember, remember the Fifth of November? In the little town of Lewes it's impossible to forget. Shop fronts are boarded up, folk test the fireworks months in advance and take their Bonfire processions so seriously that it's nearly no fun at all. 

• Musical nightscapes from Images qui Chantent, Edition Fleurus, 1969/1971