Every year, I make a calendar. I do this partly because it means that I have a format I like and I can choose the pictures for each month, partly because it is fun, and partly as a money saving exercise.

Last year, the calendar featured photographs relevant to each month. For example, April’s picture was a photograph taken on the ferry that brought us to Spain in April 2009 and December’s picture was of a previous year’s Christmas tree lights.

This year, I decided to take the idea in a slightly different direction. There are still photographs relevant to some of the months, interspersed with other pictures that I found or took and particularly like, for one reason or another. The main difference is that I decided to put some entries in the calendar, and not the usual Bank Holidays, birthdays and well-known events like Mother’s Day and Christmas.

There are many, many sites on the Internet that will tell you about all manner of boring and tragic events for every day of the year. Military campaigns and election of heads of state, disasters and criminals hog the limelight of history, just as they hog the coverage of current affairs. I prefer to look for the little known, the amusing and the daft, and there are some information sources that provide rich pickings. For example, did you know that in 2004, today was National Chicken Lady Day in the US? Or that Friday was the 685th anniversary the coronation of King Adolpho of Aragon?

So far, I have found half a dozen or so unusual, and intriguing anniversaries, events or feast dates for each month, up to July 2013. I have resisted the temptation to research each item that caught my eye. That will be part of the fun of having the calendar: as each pale blue snippet of information comes up, I shall delve around to see what I can find out about it. On February 9th I shall wonder anew who Ansbert of Rouen was. On May 13th I shall be looking into Rotuma Day. Who or what is a Rotuma? And why do Fijians celebrate or commemorate it?

Some of the events, like the Chicken Lady Day, seem so far fetched that I wonder if I have misunderstood something. Is there someone out there making up the most ridiculous thing they can, hoping that nobody will question whether the International Pixel-Stained Techno-peasant Day actually exists outside his fevered imagination?

I shall be finding more intriguing entries over the next couple of weeks, and completing the calendar, ready for printing it up. No doubt I shall vacillate wildly about which pictures to keep, which to change and whether to add a few more obscure celebrations, right up to the moment that I press the Print button for the first time.

My lucky family will be receiving copies of the calendar, so that those who are as silly as I am can enjoy the weird and wacky with me, and so that all of them can enjoy the pictures while keeping track of their busy lives.

It is just possible that some of the El Perro community would like a copy, and if that is the case, I would be happy to provide one. In exchange I would like a donation to cover expenses, and a little extra to help further the work we are doing with the Knit for Africa project.