A sign of autumn

The day started grey and dull again, but by the time we finished our walk with Xena the sun was coming out and it turned into a very sunny and hot day, it got to 27C. I find this in between season when the summer flowers die off and the autumn colour has not yet arrived quite uninspiring for photography - but there are plenty of berries about, and these wild blackberries are looking luscious and good for eating. 

I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel - this afternoon I checked the images one final time and sent them off for printing. If I don't like some of the prints I will have time to get them re-printed before I post them off at the end of the week. The professional printers I use get them to me the next day after ordering. My main dilemma now is which ones to include in the panel - although I had a very helpful one to one review, there were times when she suggested I use one image instead of another but then said she liked both so it was up to me. I also asked my mentor at the camera club for some advice as to which panel worked better, and was told it's my choice. Not helpful!! 

Despite being such a beautiful day Gavin and I went shopping for the first time in at about 2 years, and so were inside shops for part of the day. We had quite a few household things to buy and they were the type of things where buying online is not ideal as you cannot judge the quality or size properly. Kingston was full of life again, the river had a sailing regatta on, there were people pootling about on hired boats, the shops were all busy. We wore our masks throughout (and on a hot day its pretty awful). We did notice in all the department stores we went to that there is a distinct lack of stock and less choice than prior to the lockdown and the affect it has had on the retail sector. A news report today said that in the past 5 years the UK has lost 83% of its department stores! I suppose online shopping is the norm these days and it is what I usually do as it offers more choice and availability.

We finally were able to contact the hotel in Cornwall to confirm our booking, and they said they had no booking!  So I don't know what is going on but I have contacted the pro photographer who made the booking for our group, so I will see what he says.