I am a happy person today

I sat down to eat my lunch of refried potato-mozzarella-and-pea mash, which Helena cooked for the first time last night, having just opened the package which was delivered earlier. I'd managed to refrain from breaking into it until then. The words 'fragile' were plastered all over the packaging and I knew it was my new lens.

My friend, Davesviews, had tipped me off about the Canon 35mm f2.0 a few weeks ago, after I had borrowed and tested his spare Sigma 17-70mm lens, which neither of us are quite sure about. I can't afford this Canon lens, but I needed something wider to replace my broken old Canon 18-55 kit lens. Reviews of it were good and I managed to find a good price, so took the plunge. I bought a Canon 50mm f1.8 when I bought my Canon 50D nearly nine months ago, on the brilliant advice of Sarah, aka Horrigans. I still love it and have never regretted it, so another prime lens seemed the way to go for me at present, trying to get good glass at a cheap price.

A Great Spotted Woodpecker flew up the the wooden post in the next door garden as I was eating, so I grabbed the camera, changed the lens to the 35mm and quickly took a couple of shots, before it flew off, with a little squawk. I carried on with shots of some flowers and flying insects, before going down to the cabin to capture the last days of our large aloe plant, which has been flowering for weeks.

Each flower here is about an inch and a half long, and they seem to 'last' for just a few days before withering away on the very long stem. I focussed on the left hand flower which seemed to be at its peak today. The colours of the striped petals are gorgeous , and the small stamens seem to just poke out of the bottom. I don't know what insects it is designed to attract but there seems little room for then to manoeuvre. Very purpose-built I'd say.

I think I am going to be very happy with this lens, as the results were very sharp and rich with much less tendency to blown highlights, once I had looked at the histograms on the computer. The small wasp like insect I shot earlier, as it approached the lovely blue flowers of my Sollya plant looked so vivid and sharp, even under the rather dull cloudy skies between the showers. Oh what fun I hope to now have, with lots of playing, improvising and experimenting, (if they are not the same thing).