I've bitten the bullet!

I've done it! I've bought a new camera! I was beginning to feel as if I'd lost a limb as I take pictures nearly every week of the year. It is my answer to a diary in many respects and the advent of digital cameras and programs such as Picasa have made it so easy. To begin with I went the repair route and found that I could pay Fuji £99.99 plus VAT to look at my old camera and if they couldn't repair it or didn't find anything wrong with it they would in their generosity send it back to me free of charge. I would of course be out of pocket by £99.99! So I then thought I'd spend that amount of money on Ebay and buy a similar camera as I really do love my Fuji Finepix. But after being pipped at the post by a couple of £'s I gave up and decided to go for new. Well actually Martin said if I was going to spend that much on an old second hand camera why not go for broke and buy a new one with all the bells and whistles. Which is what I've done. Monday I will be the proud owner of a Fuji Finepix S9600! 10.7 optical zoom and 9 million pixels plus their fantastic CCD technology. link to more info And I am amazed at the drop in prices since I last bought a digital. My old one was over £600 but this one which is just as good if not better was only £247! Amazing. I can't wait to get back to taking pictures again. I've already downloaded and printed the manual and it doesn't appear to be to different to the old one which is just as well. So we'll be back to pictures soon.

I am still plodding on with the seat covers. Two down and five to go plus headrests. Two more are cut out and ready to sew. But today was a day of rest! This morning I went to a garden centre with my friend Sue and bought plants. And this afternoon I did a batch of dyeing. Very bright dyeing! Pictures after Monday! And then I read a book! Sheer luxury! It was the latest in the Phil Rickman series.....Remains of an Altar. I can't wait for the next one to come out later this year.....The Fabric of Sin! I have found that I can order books from the library on line and then when they are in I can go and collect them. Saves having to browse the shelves when I'm in a hurry and not find anything I really want to read. Also this way I can borrow from all the libraries in Cornwall. Its a pity I can't tap into all the libraries in the country as I have been finding that I'm reading a series and then one or two are missing and this is just so annoying. It is very tempting when this happens to buy the book from a secondhand bookshop but that way lies ruin! And one of the reasons that I have hundreds, even thousands of books, even after clearing out boxes of them. So I'm being really restrained and only buying books that I just have to have. Especially as I am still getting rid of books! It hurts!

Je suis triste!

I am so sad! Today my wonderful Fuji Finepix 4900 digital camera wouldn't work! I love this camera as it is so user friendly. Whatever I did it took wonderful pictures...well 99% of the time anyway. In the car, at any angle and with all sorts of bumps and jerks it still took a very good picture. If I can't get it mended I am going to miss it. It was OK last night and then I charged it up overnight and this morning when I turned it on it was all haywire. The settings were all awry and most on them gave me video mode. There was no macro setting and no fine tuning controls. It will take a picture but with no input from me to get it just right! It wasn't cheap either. I bought it for my second teaching trip to the States and felt I deserved the best! It did me proud and I took masses of photos and since then I've used it constantly. Perhaps it has just run out of life! Who knows. But while I wait for a camera techie to pronounce judgement I am sad.

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However I am really touched by all the comments from yesterday's post welcoming me back! You are all great and I am glad to be back. I hadn't realised how much I missed writing in the blog. It anchors my thoughts. I have thought about this and decided that I will only reply individually to comments if I am asked a question or there is something I need to reply to. Otherwise I will just mention them in the blog. I do like comments so don't let this put you off!
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I managed to get some pictures of the garden from the semi defunct camera. So here goes.These show the before and after of the tree. It really does look bare but also makes the garden look much wider. The honeysuckle on the back fence is now able to get some sun so I might even get flowers this year. I have planted bamboo and some ferns. The bamboo is the silvery looking stuff. I have clematis in the obelisque and give it a year and it will look lovely....I hope! The problem with this corner is that it is very damp and shady so not a lot will grow there. It does get some sun later in the year but not for long. It is also possible to see the difference in quality between the older photo and the one I took this morning!

And as well as all this gardening I have been playing with faux chenille. I love this technique. It is so tactile. This is a bag I made using a piece of faux chenille. It is full of pockets and is really a useful tote bag. The flowers were fussy cut and put on the top fabric piece. Then five layers plus flowers were stitched through and the resulting channels cut and brushed. I have also made two more pieces to turn into cushions. I am contemplating making a jacket using this technique as I think it could be quite useful and very effective. I first saw this technique in a very old copy of Threads magazine and they had made a coat!

It is now time for pudding! Greek yogurt, maple syrup and cream. How decadent can one get!