Clare Gaylard Glass 

We walked into the British Museum without a plan (my preferred method) and stumbled across an AMAZING Aztec exhibition - iconic pieces I have only seen in books - and artefacts like this one that I didn't know and feel I should. Heading back soon for more in the way of sketches.

Not for everyone but definately for me! Grayson Perry 'Sketchbooks', Niki de Saint Phalle and 'Heavenly Bodies': 'cult treasures and spectacular saints from the catacombs'.

An ambitious, atmospheric exhibition at the British Museum, two of my favourites above. You are shown underwater footage alongside the salvaged treasures and given a clear idea of what the city was when above water.

Delft, Ming, Ghzhel, tatoos, indigo dyed fabric. Floor to ceiling cabinets of blue and white china in the British Museum and the dangerous stacks of it in Bangkok's Chatuchak Market, I love it. Its been nearly ten years since we left Thailand and my mongrel collection of blue and white pottery is sadly thinned out. A good enough reason to reach out for the colours in my glass. 

Sketching for 'Treasure in the Landscape'.

The teapot equivalent of fireworks.

The stones and fossils get sorted out here before the holiday laundry does.

This does it for me, a miniaturised, working process that spring to life when you drop a penny in. Literally any penny, so that's value for money too. This delightful automata is the replica of an original by George Wood made in 1889 with caricatures of his fellow workers (their heads carved from pipe bowls) and it shows the stages of refining jet into jewellery. Find it in Whitby Museum.

After living overseas (and the kids growing up there) for a decade we still get a kick out of family holidays in the UK. Between Whitby and Robin Hood's Bay and most of it still looking like posters from the golden age of travel.

I didn't know these were a thing until the kids came back from the Tropical Butterfly House with photos. Thanks Ben!

A long time ago I read a Jungian essay exploring the significance of animals in folk tales and the common development of both within cultures. The suggestion was that the animal moved from main protagonist in initial oral traditions, (and children's stories) to companion/pet as society became more complex and regulated, then eventually to foe, when the animal side of human nature became regarded as somehow bestial, or something to be subdued or overcome. That's a fair bit of paraphrasing, I had better read it again.

I love Moreau's paintings, I discovered him as an inspiration for Oscar Wilde's 'Salome' and this second remarkably 'out there' painting of Jupiter and Semele (1895), consensus was that his unfinished sketches were streets ahead of the overworked complete ones. He was an inspired teacher and Matisse his most famous student. In Paris his elegant home/studio is still open and a wonderful place to explore.

Really looking forward to Alexander McQueen exhibition at the V&A, I got the book a couple of years ago and can still immerse myself in it. Sometimes the overt drama of his work eclipsed the astonishing detail, texture and sculptural elements for me, but this book put me right.

Told by John Fowles but more remarkable for the extraordinarily fluid, monochromatic illustrations by Sheliah Beckett, who I find died recently. I had a copy of this book as a child and managed to extract permission to colour it in. I did so poised between joy and a sense of vandalism.

My daughter made me 'Death of Rats' last year, inspired by the hilarious 'Reaperman', Sir Terry will be sorely missed by our immediate and extended family.

A post-medieval, English posy ring for a man's hand: 'I like my choyce' engraved inside. Pleasingly understated and right to the point.

A Victorian-era, French ring with discreet text behind the rosy panels.

A bit of an open secret this one, I'm going to have to dig around a bit more for its provenance. neither discreet nor understated,......I'd wear it.

I'm madly envious of the range, depth and beauty of Chiara Bautista's drawings. She in a maverick Mexican artist with her own iconography, recurring characters and enigmatic story-arc, and an immense and growing following who adore her work but can't buy it as she simply posts it to her facebook page along with the links to the lyrics or music that have triggered the image. https://www.facebook.com/chiarabautistaartwork

Not sure why I haven't seen this amazing image a hundred times before, it is a gloriously scarlet and abundant tribute to the usually washed-out 'Virgin Queen'. we came across it at the Tate while looking at DR Brian May's (yes that other Queen) 'Poor Man's Gallery' of Victorian stereoscopes. Well worth a look at the stereoscopes, but this painting was an excellent relief for my aged and confused eyes.

My youngest was a blown away by the recent, revisionist version of Maleficent, so her big sister got out the acrylics and duct-tape and got to work on the makeover of an old  Barbie for Christmas. As a tall, thwart, dark-haired child, I had time for Maleficent even in her unreconstructed state. All kinds of fun.

Came and went in an orgy of pumpkin carving and uncanny-valley face-painting. I have had this on my file for Valentines Day but always forget to post it. It is less noir than the infants we launched into the town. The Lovers of Valdaro.

A unique, controlled (one of each) pillaging of wild autumn haws, hips, grasses and flowers on a regular walk.. We saw four dear and remarkable people die in the past year, one very recently so I elected to seize a brief but tangible reminder that the world still flowers and is beautiful.