The Aardvark Blog

January Snow, 2025 - The Year Ahead, Christmas Reading
5/01/2025

Days after we celebrated Christmas, we get our first cold snap of the winter and the Marches landscape is covered with a thin covering of snow. It is hard not to feel the same primal joy that one felt as a child at the first snows, yet for those of us foolish enough to run a business it does present its challenges. Fortunately the gritters and snow ploughs were out in force last night, and as I write this the roads locally are all navigable - providing one goes slowly and carefully.

Unfortunately there are those about ( you know who you are) who think that a 4 x 4 is a hovercraft. For the sake of clarity it is not. It does give you more grip, but you can still slide around. A few years ago I slide nearly 30 yards on a piece of black ice, and I was in my trusty Yeti 4 x 4. Needless to say we are open today at our usual times and would be happy to see any hardy souls who come out to see us.

I am taking a lot of calls from keen folks asking about our plans for markets for the year.         I am afraid to say that due to our own domestic concerns ( yes we are still in the process     of moving house, yes it is taking an interminably long-time etc ), we are a bit behind. First market will definitely be on April 19th, but our other plans will be worked out this month. Please bear with us.

Finally Lucy M will be back next week and will be preparing our bookshop.org list of the books we have been bought or are reading this Christmas. One that I was both bought          ( by my lovely sister Sabra), and did manage to finish this Xmas was 'Diary of an Art Dealer as a Young Man' by Michael Findlay. This is a fantastic ride through the New York art scene   of    the 60s and 70s and contains pen portraits of numerous of the great names from that era. If you are interested in modern and contemporary American art, I cannot recommend     it too highly.