My new best friend!!

Indulge me a moment and allow me to introduce you to my brand, spanking new best friend. It's the very recently launched Nikon D7000 digital camera and, as of Friday, it became mine!!  It's 16.2MP, it's got a HD video recorder, which I am VERY excited about and has an 18 - 200mm VR lens.  For those of you who would like to know more, click here.  It did cost a pretty penny, but shew... it's pretty, isn't it?  And, if you're like me, money spent on a really decent camera is never money wasted...

I haven't had as much time as I'd like to have had to sit and play with my new toy yet - there's so much to learn!  While it's quite a bit more advanced than my D80, I'm really pleased that I've stuck with Nikon again, as most of the controls are pretty standard.  It makes going on holiday with a new camera a little less daunting.  That said, I have a lot to learn about low light photography, since the sun pretty much doesn't feature at all in Lapland in December.  At most it hits the horizon for about 3 hours a day.  At least if the photos flop out completely, I'll have video back ups!

Anyway, I couldn't resist taking a few happy snaps while we were at Danie's house over the weekend - nothing spectacular, but photos for my blog, none-the-less. It's been a long time!!  I also haven't had the chance to edit any of these pictures - work is super busy at the moment, especially with my holiday coming up.  I'm off from 3 - 7 December and again from 15 December - 3 January, so December's not going to be a very productive month at work for me and I have a lot to catch up on ahead of time.

The very fist (not so great) photo with my new toy...

 Jake and Laila.  Her tongue is almost never in;  it's miles too big for her mouth.  Laila has been pretty sick this week and we're all just hoping that the antibiotics she's on will help her get better soon, or she'll have to go through more tests next week...

 Danie took Jake fishing on Saturday afternoon.  The weather was gorgeous and we packed a picnic lunch and spent the afternoon on the water.  Rosanne and Gareth joined us for a while, which was great.  Jake, of course had a ball, but came home telling me "I'm such a loser, because I'm the best fisherman and I didn't even catch one fish!"  Hahaha - I could've told him that before we left, but Danie had spent a small fortune on lures, so I didn't want to be a spoilsport.  Plus, I enjoy going out for a little ride around the marina, it's so relaxing.  And I love looking at other people's homes and gardens...

 Jake doing his best...

Laila loves the boat too...

 

Reflections across the marina...

 And, lastly, little ducklings we separated from their mommy on our "cruise" home... 

And that's it. I do have photos of Jake fishing for tadpoles from the lawn, but I haven't downloaded them yet.  And I've only taken one video clip so far, but it's of Jake pretending to dig in his nose, so I'll spare you (It's also quite big and I'm not so sure on how to upload it yet).  It's quite funny though.

We've got Jake's school Christmas concert on tomorrow night and I think he's been more excited about that then he has been about our holiday.  He's Father Christmas in the concert and has to sneeze 3 times (cos he gets stuck in the chimney as part of a rhyme they do and has to sneeze his way out) and he has a little line to say on his own ('Christmas is not only about presents, it's a wonderful story').  I'm sure I'll cry again, like I did last year, but at least this year I have my new camera to distract me.  Photos to follow soon.

Shew, I'm so, so glad to be able to take and share photos again, my life is pretty near perfect at the moment.

Lots of love to you all,
Sue XXX