New Camera!

I’ve been saving my credit card cash back bonus for 10+ years, waiting for something special to spend it on.   Behold … the ‘free’ camera:

An Olympus OMD EM-10,  along with 3 lenses, zoom (150 –> 600 mm equivalent), macro/portrait (120 mm, f2.8), and  a portable pancake (28->84 mm).  It is a ‘micro-4/3’ camera, so the sensor is 1/2 the width of a full dlsr, but it is pretty small, esp with that pancake lens.  That’s my old point and shoot pocket camera on the right.

The zoom lens lets me sneak up on birds

and mountains

The macro/portrait lens lets me sneak up on flies

and flowers

and people

and cats

and, of course, dogs

lots of dogs

In other acquisition news, I bought a wheel barrow and 6 cubic yards of shredded bark

to replenish the zero-scaped parkway

The inside plants were feeling jealous, so I gave them their yearly repotting party.

Helen has been busy preparing 5 presentations and 2 upcoming conferences.   Here with co-presenter Shannon

And here with co-presenter Jazz.  Their conference is in Hamburg Germany the week of 6/8.

Our friend Michel, who helped clean out the lake house last fall came for a visit from NH … brought 3 suitcases full of Russian books!

We gave puppy his first haircut.  His belly hair was floor length, so was bringing all kinds of outdoor debris.   Here is a before shot:

a during shot (we were rewarding him with a spoon full of yogurt):

And an mostly done, taking a break, shot:

And a finally done, I can now have fun with the cat shot:

When he bothers the cat too much, Cat will get a claw into his beard and make him say Uncle before letting go:

But that does not deter Dog for long.  Poor Cat.  He will be out basking peacefully in the sunshine:

Then wild Dog spots him and bounds about him like a drugged up Tasmanian Devil:

Until Cat darts away and finds a hiding spot

Then Dog cools down a bit, long enough to stop and smell the flowers

 

Bruce