Here's a mater dolorosa in Seville Cathedral. I found many of these in churches across the city, dressed in rich fabrics, hands clasped in an agony of suffering, with rich gems sometimes depicting their tears. It seemed to me the sufferings of Mary are something of a cult for the Spanish, Jesus playing a secondary role in the drama. I liked these churches, some shabby and dusty, at times busy with people or just a solitary priest pottering about. I wondered about these statues, that perhaps the Spanish invest all their sorrows in the Virgin Mary so that they can get on with the business of enjoying life.

These are some of the recent acquisitions at the Museum of Miniature Found Objects. The two metal hearts are the kind donations of Mrs Plimmestine of west London. From left to right:

= the metal heart with an arrow was found at 8.51am on 9 August, in Earls Court Road near Kensington High Street;

= the heart-shaped sweet was found at 10.08am on Friday 29 July, in Guildsway, east London;

= the plastic red heart was found at 11.11am on Saturday 28 May, in Lordship Road, north London;

= the filigree metal heart was found on the paving stones in front of Hackney Town Hall in Mare Street, at 5.59pm on Saturday 18 June.

For the past year my sister Bérénice, an artist, has been working on a project based in an art gallery and our mother's house nearby. My mother moved from this house to a smaller one over a year ago, and took only those things from the house she wanted or needed. Bérénice was fascinated by what had been left behind; as she says, "What is our relationship to the stuff we no longer need? What happens when something as big as a house is superseded by a new life? There are things stowed away in our houses that we only seem to find when we vacate them . . ." One of the project's participants, Mike Ladd, captures the poignancy of this in his film, Ungiven Gifts, which features the voices of Bérénice and our mother Anne, telling the story of the some of the objects left behind. 

Bérénice's blog is also well worth a visit.