...holiday preparations

Tomorrow we're off to Northumberland for 5 nights, staying in a little studio apartment across the road from the beach at Seahouses. Even though there is a forecast including gusty winds, rain and sleet, I'm still looking forward to walks along the beach, interspersed with hot chocolate, reading, knitting and (more than likely) working our way through the 'Breaking Bad' boxset. I've been deliberating for a few weeks about up-grading from my smart-phone camera to a 'proper' camera, so a short break in one of the most beautiful parts of the country seemed like a good excuse to take the plunge. So here is a rather blurry portrait of the new camera taken with the trusty smart-phone camera...

...and here are the first attempts at using it:

An afternoon of clearing leaves, de-brambling and dead-heading in the front garden resulting in a wheelie-bin's worth of stuff for the Council composter and some extra breathing space for these lovely snowdrops.

I opted for this camera because the reviews suggested that it would be a manageable step up from a smart-phone camera, as it has a lot of touch-screen features and a fairly straight-forward 'point and shoot' auto mode. I think it will still take a while for me to get used to it - it's tiny, so my hands feel clumsy and fumbly when I'm holding it, and I have to think very hard about how to get to where I want to be - i.e. which button to press to view the photos I've taken, how to delete them, how to transfer them to my phone for uploading etc. But I think I can see the difference in the quality of the images, so I'm going to roll with my resistance and keep practicing until I overcome it.

The XXSCat dog has had a pre-holiday home haircut and bath earlier today, so she is giving me the cold shoulder and feeling a bit sorry for herself. She does her best to sit still while I haphazardly snip away, but always ends up looking a little odd and uneven for the first week or so afterwards. If she liked non-family humans a little more I would take her to a dog-groomer, but I'm pretty sure both she and the groomer would have an absolutely miserable time and end up hating each other. 

I need to start making a list of things to pack/take on holiday. I'm not an eager traveller - I like home too much - so my poor husband is normally tearing his hair out by the time we hit the road after a flurry of last minute tidying (so it's even nicer to be home when we get back) and general procrastination/delaying tactics. Like adding a pre-holiday blog entry instead of getting on with the list!