Snowdrops

I have not seen any snowdrops this year, so today in desperation I drove to a spot where I know that a few grow - thankfully they were up and blooming. Not sure why I have not seen them in all the other usual places this year.

We had beautiful light around midday today, I got the feeling that spring is truly here as it was mild and the trees in the woods were lit up and not the usual dark and gloomy winter scene. However it has turned very windy and rain is now forecast and we are in for a colder spell. We have not had days of rain for so many weeks now I cannot remember when we last had significant rain.

I am still driving myself crazy trying to decide about a possible new camera bag. It has all come about as I carry a very heavy load on my back, as I have heavy pro cameras, and these days there are bags that are specifically designed for women that apparently make the load easier to bear (as they are shorter in length and the straps are adjustable and curved to fit a woman's shape) With my sore lower back I really feel it when I carry my current bag for a short time, even Gavin was commenting on how badly it 'fits' me. One of the bags I am looking at was in stock at a camera store in East Sussex, so I decided to drive down there to have a proper look at it and see how my camera and lenses fit into it. I now know why retail is dying, the service was appalling and other than getting the bag for me from the store room, I got zero service - I was the only customer in the store and there were about five or six staff just chatting to each other. I am glad I did go look at it - although I did not buy it - but I will stick to online ordering as I usually do, it's not worth the effort of driving to a store - and in this case it was 45 minutes each way! I came home and emailed the manufacturer with my questions about fittings and sizes and which bag in their collection would be best and will rather buy directly from them.

I am tired from our late camera club meeting last night. Our club is known in the region for our excellent wildlife images, and the judge commented on that when she arrived, saying she was looking forward to seeing our high standard of wildlife images - and luckily for her there were many wildlife entries last night, but then she says she knows nothing about wildlife photography and that was soon apparent from her judging!