Talking Calendars

Sometimes, life gets in the way of art. Thus the bad news: despite my best intentions and with great disappointment, a few months ago I had to face the reality that I would not be able to produce a new Head in the Clouds Amherst wall calendar for 2022. To those who have visited Hastings or reached out to place an order by mail, thank you – your patience and understanding is deeply appreciated.

Now here’s the good news: our team has already gotten a serious head start on the 2023 calendar, which will be available next summer, even earlier than our typical fall release date. The photographers whose images would have graced the 2022 calendar will be featured in 2023. And in the past few months, I’ve uncovered even more local weather history, and the 2023 calendar will include additional daily entries highlighting weather events going back 400 years. Still, I know it will be tough to get through a year without knowing when thunderstorms destroyed the upper dam at “Factory Hollow” in North Amherst, whether a full moon will interfere with the Orionids, and what night broke records for UFO sightings across the local area! If absence really does make the heart grow fonder, 2023 should be a banner year for our next calendar!

The first Head in the Clouds Amherst calendar – for 2014 – went on sale on October 23, 2013. That year, all 12 featured monthly photos were my own. In addition to listing major holidays, the calendar also included 40 daily entries highlighting local weather events. From the beginning, we sold the calendar through Hastings and Amherst Books as well as online.

Our first calendar, 2014
All photos by Sharon Vardatira

Our calendar has evolved continuously over the past eight years – indeed, aside from the title, the 2021 calendar bears little resemblance to our debut 2014 version. The first major change came about in 2016, when the calendar began featuring monthly photos by 12 different photographers. 

2016 Calendar
Cover photo by John M. Cushing Jr.

And in 2018, as more photographs were submitted for consideration, we instituted a juried selection process. Altogether from 2016-2021, 41 different photographers have been featured, some in multiple years. The daily entries – including astronomical events visible from Amherst with the naked eye, holidays, and history-making local weather events – have multiplied every year, going from 40 in 2014 to over 240 projected for 2023!

In 2019, our calendar took another major turn, moving to a professional look and feel, with saddle stitch binding, coated glossy heavyweight paper, and individual shrink wrapping. The 2021 calendar, with its edge-to-edge cover photo, is arguably our most beautiful.

2021 Calendar
Cover photo by James Patten

As a small, boutique production, our goal has never been about profit – it has been about building community, bringing together people who love our corner of the world, and celebrating each new season unfolding. To underscore that purpose, in 2021, we decided to donate all proceeds to a different local charity each year – in 2021, we selected the Amherst Survival Center, and in 2023, proceeds will go to the Kestrel Land Trust.

Thank you for traveling with our Head in the Clouds Amherst community. We look forward to opening the calendar for 2023, and finding new ways for all of us to share our love of the sky and clouds, nature and weather, and all those places, locally and more distant, that take our breath away.