Unexpected visit.

You know when things happen and you take a while (or ages) before the fact of the matter sinks in?

Well Saturday evening was one of these occasions!

I heard a car drive over the gravel outside our house and wondered who it was (the bane of our life is people turning on our parking area outside who have no connection with us in the slightest!). The car actually drove up to our front door and I was just about to open the front door with a flourish of the hand or a gentle verbal assault when the person driving got out and walked towards me.

It actually turned out to be mine and Zak's friend Paul, who had emigrated to Australia, and whom we never thought we'd see again unless we went on a holiday!!

WOW is all we could say for ages, we were so knocked back that this man had travelled across the world, for whatever reason, and had travelled to see us!

We were overjoyed (can you tell!?).

We all met in an online game called Eve-Online, which is a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) set in space, and one we have been playing for about 4 and a half years there abouts. We were in the same corporation together (group of players) and then we made our own corporation and did things together in there - it was great fun!

Unfortunately Paul had to go after and hour or two, but it was great to see him, we still haven't met his other half Kirstin, but I'm sure we will one day!

:D

My new camera.

I've always wanted an SLR camera, and I was unable to have one until recently.

I bought a Nikon D40 Digital SLR camera, which I'd read a lot of reviews for, and thought it would be nice to be able to take proper pictures, instead of using our little family Digital Camera (which has done us very nicely so far thank you!).

I was so excited, I part charged the battery and went outside to try and do something similar to the ones I had seen on my friend Don's blog, done by his very competent photographer wife Ruth (who also has a blog with spectacular images on.

Now ok - I had it on AUTO and I wasn't about to change that for now - but WOW!!!

What a fantastic thing!

It's not often I get wow'ed by stuff (ok ok! every time i go into an Electronics shop, farm equipment shop, gadget shop, tool shop etc etc) but this was just BRILLIANT!!

I have been really impressed when someone takes a photo of, say, a flower with it all blurred in the background - so I attempted to take my first EVER D-SLR picture - and here it is - it's a little Dandelion clock just outside our back door!



I've been taking quite a few picture of the new place with it, and found a yellow flowery weed growing on a patch of the uncut grass.

After walking to look at it, I noticed there was a bee flying from one flower to the next - so quickly I took the camera lens off and took a few photos of it as it fluttered around.

Here is My first attempt at a wildlife photo!



I am really pleased with these photo's and one day I hope to be able to take it off of AUTO - or the preset settings!!

:D

Almost done it.

Yes the shed is pretty much done - just a bit more cladding (or siding for others) on the sides and some roof felt on the roof and it's done!

At least now it's pretty watertight and I've managed to get my tractor/mower in there - so I'm now clearing out the main workshop and making plans to store things that at the moment reside in our garage.

Talking of the mower - even though I changed the starter solenoid, it STILL wouldn't start when I turned the key, so using a bit of mechanic know how, I bypassed the solenoid and started the old thing up...


...streaking across the long grass like a rally driver, I managed to cut the grass reasonably quickly, which inspired me to get out my Stihl hedge trimmer.

It's funny how you get carried away - one minute I was smartening up a fir hedge, the next minute I was doing all the hedges... well a few not ALL the hedges - that would just be plum CRAZY! lol!

Still, after about 30-45 minutes of arm juddering fun, I realised I wasn't able to use my left arm very much - it was the arm that supported the trimmer up in the air - OUCHY!

I was happy with the work I'd done though - and it felt good to put some hard labour which made so much difference to the back garden area.