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Rating: 
Summary: colorful and attractive
Review: Sara Steele's watercolors have vibrant color, and are quite well done. Six of them are florals, and the one titled "Revival", for January, is my favorite of the twelve pieces pictured, with a yellow/orange/pink flower shaded with blue, with purple in the background, contrasting with the teal green leaves. It dances on the page, and would warm up one's day on a frosty morning. Another choice picture is the "Sunflowers" for July.
Two are loosely drawn landscapes, which are the least effective of the twelve, April is a nice bowl of red and yellow peppers, May is a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, June is three brightly colored pears, and September is titled "Altarpiece", which is a rather abstract painting.
The illustrations are coupled with Chinese verse taken from poetry anthologies, from such poets as Li Po and Jiang Kui, and most of them from ancient dynasties.
The poems are in Chinese and translated into English. To accompany July's sunflowers, we have from Hsieh T'iao:
"Luxuriance-growth of spring.
Fading yellow shares autumn's tone".
The calendar explains that is has the standard Western calendar, as well as the Chinese lunar calendar: "In each date block of the grid are several Chinese characters representing the lunar calendar dates, the beginning of each lunar month, and Chinese holidays".
2005 is the Chinese year 4703, the Year of the Rooster, a Wood year.
It also has a little moon symbol letting us know if it is First Quarter, Full, etc.
Thick glossy paper and marvelous color reproduction make this an attractive calendar.
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