Postcards from Bad Oeyhhausen, West Phalia. The pigs remembered in this fountain lead to the discovery of the thermal waters. As they wallowed in a muddy field, the farmer noticed a crust of salt on their backs. (The story reminds me of the cows who found epsom salts). The king set up a salt mine. As they were drilling for salt reserves, the miners discovered a thermal spring.

A packet of mineral bath salts from the thermal springs in Beppu, Japan. The sacred hot spring pools are coloured turquoise blue, milky white and ‘hell’ red by the mineral content in the water.

A leaflet from the Poseidon thermal complex on the island of Ischia in Southern Italy. The Ancient Roman Emperors and other elite took holidays in their villas on the near by island Capri. The islands are near Naples and it’s volcano, Vesuvius.

It can take an afternoon at least to try out all the pools and saunas. The sun beats down on you as you sit in hot pools. You can swim in the sea and sauna in a cave. I walked around the track of a circular pool, feet on a bed of pebbles, through hot water then into freezing cold.

Director J.Lee Thompson chose to rely on our imaginations in his 1953 black and white film, The Yellow Balloon. In the setting of bombed post war London, a boy loses his pocket money and the chance of buying a balloon. Upset, he steals his friend’s yellow balloon, an incident which leads to tragedy and blackmail. Later, a manipulative gangster buys the boy a red balloon to gain his trust.

The colours of the balloons are conveyed only by words, in the title and the dialogue, the opposite of the language of film, which tells a story using pictures.

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We are used to seeing old master drawings, etchings and lithographs are usually drawn in black or sepia on a cream paper, grey or off white paper, perhaps marked or discoloured with time. The have the aura and patina of age. But Gauguin’s Volpini suite is printed on a strong buttercup yellow paper. The colour instantly makes the print look modern.

In 2006, the Conservative party changed its logo to a rough sketch of a British tree. Has the logo changed its meaning since it was launched?

The logo was meant to associate the party with care for the environment and the tree doubled up as a symbol for growth. The hand drawn, sketchy brush mark treatment (albeit computer generated) gave a friendly, casual impression, like wearing a shirt with an open neck instead of a tie and jacket. It was a step away previous logo, a strong crisp edged arm brandishing a flaming torch, in the style of 1930s totalitarian propaganda.

Now, as the coalition moves towards selling thousands of hectares of Forestry Commission land, how can the tree refer to anything else but an attempt place precious woodland in the hands of private enterprise?

>> Save our Forests petition

A site seen in Rajasthan, Northern India, on the edge of the Thar Desert.