Probate

 My mother died on December 23, 2022- and probate has only just been granted on her will. I gather this long delay is nothing unusual. 

Olly across the road, whose mother died a matter of months ago, sorted out probate himself using an online form. Saved money. Saved time.

All the same I'd rather put a shock absorber- aka a solicitor- between myself and officialdom....

Kami

 I know nothing- well, almost nothing- about Japanese art. So buying a set of four wood block prints at the recycling centre was a punt. Not a very costly one because we were also buying a shed load of toys and two other pictures and we got the lot for 16.00.

 To be honest I didn't even know they were Japanese. They could have been throwaway advertising materials which someone took a fancy to. They were damaged and badly framed but I liked them.

 Ailz did a google search. They're the work of Shiko Munakarta, best known Japanese woodblock artist of the last century.

 Oh!

 Are they originals?

Well, they look it to me. The paper's right. They're not photographic reproductions

Are they worth rather more than we paid for them? Irrelevant, because I don't buy to make a profit. I buy to hang on the wall. I won't be selling. But since the question is inescapable, probably yes.

But I do love a bargain. I do love to have my taste affirmed.

Am I gloating. Just a bit.

 Shiko Munakarta was crazy about Van Gogh and Van Gogh was crazy about Japanese wood block prints- and the circularity is pleasing. Most of Munakarta's work is on Shin-Buddhist themes. He believed the wood he worked with dictated the form of the artwork, You didn't force anything, You went with the grain.

The ladies in our prints are Kami- nature spirits, elementals, fairies....

 Here they are in situ.