365:31

31 has presented me with the biggest challenge thus far. 31 it seems is of itself a very interesting number indeed, though it and the date have little of interest associated that I found both inspiration and props for.

31 is a Prime number. It is itself composed of two primes, 1 and 3. The number of letters (in English) required to write the word names of the first six primes is the sixth prime reversed, i.e., 31. There are several manipulations of 31 that result in primes as the answer.

OK then, I thought, I'll take a shot of one of my favourite books: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Could I find it anywhere? You guess.

31 is the Atomic Number of the element Gallium. As far as I know we have nothing in the house that is made of/with gallium.

Had the sky been clear, I might have attempted a shot of the Andromeda Galaxy, M31. Clear skies - pah, some hope!

Baskin Robbins, famous for their 31 flavours of ice-cream, are many, many miles away from here.

The card game 31 seemed pretty boring to represent, though had I a five dollar note it might have offered some photographic possibilities.

"On this day" offered the possibility of photographing a car seat belt buckle, but it's nasty outside and I couldn't be bothered. If I were a horsey person I might have come up with something for the Chinese New Year, but I can't abide the nasty, ill-tempered, biting, smelly things. There was always the possibility of a selfie and producing myself a new Avatar, for the use of (2010 – Avatar became the first film to earn over $2 billion worldwide.)... but I need strong drink before facing a camera lens.

The viewer might need strong drink, had I taken up a reference to Turkish slang and a familiar but not-family-friendly practice.

One distinct possibility was found in the fact: There are 31 pairs of spinal nerves in the human body. I could see the shot, in mono, low-key ... but my only available model is not available, due to being deep in the midst of a serious work crisis. I'm going to hold the image in my head, as it is one that I should like to try when times are more favourable.

There was the sea of course - lively today and with a very high tide expected things might have become interesting around 11am, but not a patch on today in 1953 (1953 – A North Sea flood causes over 1,800 deaths in the Netherlands and over 300 in the United Kingdom) and it would not have been seemly to make the reference. Similarly, Harold Shipman, suicide bombings and ferry disasters were all non-starters.

Phew - it's a bleak time of year by tradition, it seems. Perhaps we needed a spoonful of sugar to help it all down. Alas, I have only butter to offer...

There are 31 milligrams of cholesterol in a tablespoon of butter.

Desperate? Moi? Mais non, mes petits. I tell lies too.

Anyway, that figure ensured that the butter went back in the butter dish! I do not need another word from my GP on the matter of my lipid counts.

One month done. One whole month. Applause, please.

I think the whole "represent the number or the day" may well break down very soon indeed. It's hard work, doing all this research.