For the past 15 or so years, I have made myself a calendar from photos taken during the previous year-- 1 per month, 13 pictures, 12 months plus a cover. Some years I've made 2 because 13 images were not enough to give the flavor of the past year. However, this year, 2021, I did not make a calendar. Indeed, 2020 ended at Friday the 13th of March. The world went into its Covid confinement, and there were no happy or arty scenes to record. I took very few photographs and went into a rather non-productive sad funk.
As a result, since January, I have been using 2 of the free calendars that come in the mail each year, one from the Nature Conservancy and the other from the Ocean Conservancy (is there a pattern here?). I usually get one from the dry cleaner, but this year like most small businesses that are only almost getting by, they could not produce for such frivolities as calendars.
Be that as it may, the real reason I'm writing about calendars and not the sorry state of drycleaners is that the Ocean Conservancy with its February picture of an ugly common rockfish told me that today is International Polar Bear Day. I felt totally unprepared for such a celebratory event, so I went outside without a jacket and stood in the 45 degree weather in sympathy with the polar bears, although they have fur and are not cold. I did have some experience of their environment.
I think I might bake a cake tonight and pop a prosecco. It's as good an excuse as any. Happy Polar Bear Day!
