Maps, to Start the Year Off on the Right Foot, er, Hand...

I hope this blog post finds you all well and starting off your new year happily...

We are back from our northeast post-holiday cross-year excursion, having enjoyed delicious beverages, eaten some of the best breakfasts ever, and cheered each of our favorite football teams to victory (mine, college, and his, professional).

And now I have wrapped up my first day back by diving into the backlog of Google Alerts I have set up for keywords and phrases like "imaginary maps," "cartography," "watercolor maps," and every variation of my name and/or shop name that I could think of.

This is often, especially for "cartography," a lovely way to discover other people's maps and artwork and generally delightful things.

Like the Hand Drawn Map Association. Where have you been all my life, oh, Hand Drawn Map Association?

Actually (tucking my head down and lowering my voice), I have seen the Hand Drawn Map Association before... but couldn't remember how to get there again... lost the map, you see.

Not a problem. Thanks to Cartophilia, I found my way.

I love the detail in this map, by Alex Williams:



This anonymous map is great... bringing to mind the question, what did I do while spending countless hours in meetings over the years? Nothing nearly so interesting, I think.




I'm fond of this one, by Andrea Biller-Collins, since my birthday is Groundhog Day:




And an imaginary world, or two, after my own heart (drawn by Jamie McQuinn, who I believe is the Cartophiliac himself, which might just show that all roads take us back to where we started):