I chose a seasonal theme for today’s “Throwback Thursday” image. This was our Christmas card artwork for 2012.

I took the photograph when I was exploring the remains of the never-completed Brockley Hill Tube Station, in London, in October 2012. The bird was sitting in a bush in what’s now known as the “Arches Field”.

It had never occurred to me before then that robins are popular subjects for Christmas cards only in Britain. When I was a kid, my parents received many cards featuring robins every year, and I even have the remains of one such card (dating from the 1960s) today, because I later “repurposed” it for use in one of my own drawing books.

The American Robin is a different bird species, of course, but you’ll rarely see an American card featuring any kind of robin (cardinals are actually more popular as subjects, although we don’t have those in California).

The British penchant for associating robins with Christmas  had been noticed by the New Scientist magazine, which published an article about it 56 years ago today: Robins for Christmas.

Season’s Greetings to everyone!