Counting the dragonflies on the header

The header image across the site has fourteen dragonflies scattered through it, if you count carefully, which is more than most people would ever bother to do. We know the exact number because we drew them one at a time and kept losing count partway through, which is its own sort of comedy.

The idea started as a single dragonfly near the waterfall, just to break up an empty patch of sky above the mill roof. Once it was there, the rest of the scene looked oddly bare without a few more scattered further along the reeds, and the number crept up from there without much of a plan.

We did eventually have to stop ourselves, since a header with forty dragonflies stops reading as a peaceful riverside scene and starts reading as an infestation. Fourteen felt like the right amount: enough to notice if you look closely, not so many that they crowd out the koi and the waterlilies underneath.

A couple of visitors have written in over the past few weeks asking whether the header changes between pages. It doesn't currently, though it's a nice idea, and one we might come back to if there's ever a quiet stretch with time to spare for it.

For now, if you've got a spare minute next time you're on the site, see if you can spot all fourteen. It's a small thing, but small things are rather the whole idea behind a site like this one.