Father Christmas came early ...

... as in "this morning". Or rather, it was the mand from DHL who came bearing gifts. And I now have a 50mm f1.4 lens, and a zoom lens of 70-300mm for the Nikon . The zoom lens was something bought on a whim as it was second-hand and quite cheap as well, and it's something that I've always promised myself if ever I saw one around.

The other lens cost a great deal of money and it has a specific purpose in that my footy photographs at night are nothing like as good as they ought to be and it's high time that I did something about it. I either have not enough light on the subject or else they are taken too slow and hence they are blurred. The 17-105mm lens that I have currently on the camera doesn't stop down anything like far enough - about f4 is its limit. But then again zoom lenses are never any good in poor light conditions.

They came from the USA and the taxes and fees cost half the purchase price of the articles. That's a huge disappointment and is threatening international commerce.

Apart from that, this morning I chopped up another pile of firewood. This fire is impressive - while I was having my evening meallast night it warmed up the place from15.4°C to 22.5°C with just one log of wood, and the insulation kept the place as high as 16.5°C this morning.

And this afternoon Ibuildahuge wooden box out of scraps of wood that I had lying arouns. The mice are getting everywhere and there's nowhere to leave any fruit or veg where it will be safe. I tried a plastic container but the stuff just sweated. Wood is the answer as the wood will absorb the sweat but you can't buy wood boxes like you used to be able to do - hence the home-made variety.

And with a really late night last night and a 7:30 awakening, I'm whacked so I'm going to bed early. Well, early for me anyway.

And I forgot to add that it rained yesterday - 4.5mm. The first rain that we have had since 7th November.