One of my specialities is sticking my head in the sand and refusing to deal with a problem when I can’t see the solution. I have been doing it again recently and have at last had something of a breakthrough.

You see, it’s year three for my calendar – my first was food, my second horticulture and I have now got our company’s offices clamouring for year three. The trouble is though it’s not that easy to think of a theme that is the sort of thing that people will want to put on their wall.

For me, that mostly comes down to horticulture, food or landscapes and I was ruling out all three because the first two I’ve done and the latter I can’t dredge up enough shots from my archives that have a global enough flavour as the calendar goes to about 8,000 people around the world.

So, I’ve been putting people off when they say ‘what’s this year’s one about?’ I have got to the point that I can’t put it off any longer and so when I was asked at the Board Meeting if it’s under control, I whispered in the ear of my friend and colleague my dilemma. She suggested cheese as a subject – she said it’s international and everyone loves cheese.

The trouble is that it’s not really truly global, I’ve subsequently discovered, there was no market at all for cheese in the far east until recently, as the diets of the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and the other countries of the far east didn’t include cheese until quite recently. Their tastes are for mildly flavoured cheeses if my research is to be believed.

In fact, most of the cheese types we know and love emanate from Europe in one way or another. So, a calendar based on cheese isn’t really as global as you’d think at first.

After giving it some concerted thought, I decided to go for cheese but turn it from global:local, which has been the basic premise in previous years, to perfect combinations.

Today I set off for the big city (Plymouth) where I could find a big range of different cheeses (even though my instinct is to photograph Cornish ones, I knew I’d never get away with that with my eagle-eyed boss). I bought cheeses and other props, some edible and some not.

This is one of the resultant shots and it’ll be next Christmas’s shot (happy holidays in fact). I’ve now got 5 of 12 in the bag and by the end of this week will have the lot!!! Phew.

last year, we were walking the moors and up at Holman's Shaft