Black Pond

Last night I thoroughly enjoyed the zoom talk by Tom Way who describes himself as a fine art wildlife photographer - he takes more portrait type of wildlife shots rather than action shots, so he explained that lighting is key for him, as well as framing. I was interested to hear that after being a Canon user for so long he has just switched to the Nikon Z9, it is acknowledged as the best camera available especially for wildlife photography, and I have heard of many other pros who are also now using this camera.

It was forecast to rain yet it stayed bright and dry all day, the rain only came in at about 4.30pm. I liked the clouds building up over Black Pond when I walked there with Xena this morning. 

At the beginning of the year Meriel applied for and got a job in the Foreign Office, it is a very prestigious department in the civil service and she did very well to get the position. She was unable to start her job until her security clearance was passed, and the first level of this has happened so she starts next month. However there are many more levels of security to get through and this next level requires all sorts of information about us (and Luke, who will also be interviewed). One of the things she needed from us was details about our naturalisation as British citizens, and when I went to the file to get the information I realised that Gavin's certificate is missing. He probably had to use it for something else and it was never returned to the file. We were surprised to find out today that it will cost him £250 to get a copy of the certificate! It also means Meriel's clearance is held up until he gets his certificate so I hope he can get a copy very quickly.

And just like that it is nearly the weekend again, I love these four day week!