Hellebore

Last night we had a very enjoyable camera club meeting. A few members did presentations, but I really enjoyed one by a new member who is from South Africa and possibly the best bird and wildlife photographer I have ever seen. He explained all the nature reserves and which birds are found where, and I was surprised at the interesting species of endemic birds that I did not know about. His photos were outstanding, but he puts in much effort to get the shot. For example hiking up a mountain at 2.30am to be at the top by 6.30am when the Cape Vulture is leaving it's roost to go out for the day, so he was eye level with the vulture before it flies up in the thermals as the temperature rises. And everyone really liked my Christmas cake that I took for the tea break and thankfully is now finished! There was another very interesting talk from another member who spent a week on the island of Mull, trying to photograph otters and sea eagles. He spent hours lying on damp seaweed waiting to get the perfect shot, and after days of doing this he finally got a couple of brilliant images of otters and sea eagles fishing. It makes you realise that it takes so much effort to get that one perfect shot, and anything that is not perfect is just so frustrating as you cannot use it for anything, no one wants an image of an out of focus otter or a side view of an otter against a messy background, or the back of an eagle where there is no eye contact.

This morning the painters arrived early and got going with the preparing and painting. We discovered some more horrible stains on the walls in Adam's bedroom from a roof leak - we knew about the leak but in the last week it has worsened and spread - so they contacted a roofer they work with, who came over to assess the situation and they will hopefully get the roof leaks fixed quickly so the painters get get on with repairing that damage too. I am getting fed up with the repair bills and constant maintenance. I know roof leaks happen but this occurred where the flashing has lifted and the slate coping has cracked allowing water to come through the roof. 

I met up with Laura (the person who looks after Xena when we go away) for a walk - Xena was so happy to see her and the dog she is currently house sitting, who Xena has met several times before, so they had fun on the walk together. I planned to take photos of the dogs on the walk but its not easy concentrating on photos when walking with someone else so I came home and took some of the hellebores in my garden instead.

Tonight it is the camera club committee meeting, thankfully on zoom so I don't have to go out again. It is scheduled to finish at 9pm so maybe I have time to watch an episode of Happy Valley before I go to bed!