Sacred Ground

Today's blip features the altar of St Kentigern's church in Kaituna Valley. This lovely stone church has featured in a blip before, but this is the first photo I've taken inside the church for sometime.

The stained glass window is really lovely, portraying Christ with a flock of sheep in Kaituna Valley. Because of its local connection both to people it is dedicated to (the Parkinson family, the ancestors of my next door neighbour) and its accurate depiction of the Valley, it's perhaps my most favourite of all stained glass windows.

I recommend viewing large to see all of the details

Today's blip is also a bit of a milestone in my recovery from surgery - I drove to the Church for the photo session! It's the first time in 11 weeks that I have driven. It felt OK, and whilst I can handle the pedal controls just fine, I have to admit that by the time I drove the four k's back up the valley to home I'd had quite enough. So, for the next couple of weeks at least, I'll stick to being a passenger for now....

This is also the first chance I've had in a while to use my 16-35mm lens. I've been mulling over trading it recently - together with my Sigma 28-70 2.8 - for a Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 lens. It's not that the 16-35 is a bad lens - far from it, it's sharp and has excellent colour and contrast - it's simply because I've been using the medium zoom quite a lot recently and feel that I need something a bit better than the Sigma if that's the focal length I'm using more often. If only I had a spare couple of grand I'd keep both.... hmm, decisions decisions...