I began painting My favourite things last January and it has been hanging around waiting for me to complete it ever since. I finally managed it yesterday. It’s very simple picture really: an A to Z of some of the things I love best in the world from aardvark to zebra.

Before I painted in the background I photographed some of the details. Here’s D for dolphin, with a bit of C for chipmunk and I for impala:

And who wouldn’t be pleased to see a G for giraffe up close and personal as I did almost two years ago in Kenya? It’s not only their long eyelashes and reticulated markings that I love, it’s their extraordinary evolution; on the very edge of what’s possible for an antelope.

The eyes of an O for owl – another evolutionary triumph.

This detail shows the poor old Q for quagga, now extinct; an R for raccoon, those great opportunists; and a V for viscacha, a South American mountain-dwelling, rock-hopping, ludicrously cute social rodent.

And finally a pretty little F for frog. What’s not to love?