I've spent far too much time thinking about pictures and not enough about words.

We've been busy around here recently, and that's not due to change anytime soon. We're looking to buy some property, Sally is working most weekends, I had some maintenance to do on the house we rent out and there was a work deadline too. Upshot is that I haven't had much time to sit in front of the computer (except to update the afore-linked).

Last night, while Sally was off cooking dinner in a local castle, I peeled spuds for the lunch she was due to give to some nuns today. It reminded me of our wedding a little, as I peeled eleven stone of spuds for that occasion, and while I wasn't approaching that this time, I peeled more than I would on a normal Saturday night (that would be none).

The house is looking a bit rough around the edges as the woman who comes and cleans twice a week (bless her) is on holiday and not back for some time. This means that some things get designated 'non-essential' and it can be hard to find clean tea towels, or see the floor of the playroom.

And summer is hurtling to a close. Anna goes back to and Paddy starts school on the 29th and this will set the rhythm for the next few months. Sally and I are on the brink of spending the most money we've ever spent, and this is a little nerve wracking. But we're not letting this spoil our fun, as it were. One of the reasons that Sally is working so much is to pay for my birthday present -- a trip to Venice -- and we are both looking forward to it very much. Mostly because we will be without the childer for three days (and nights!), but, you know -- Venice! What's not to like?

Having received my new camera, I discovered that it didn't automatically make me a better photographer. It has a couple of features that I like over my other camera, but I shelled out the seventy Euro to get the old one fixed anyway, so I have a pocketable camera should I feel the need of one. But I have taken more pictures. Many more pictures. Some of which end up on Flickr, which is a site I like, but it doesn't quite work the way I want it to sometimes. It also seems to have bandwidth issues, but it's a popular picture-heavy site, so why wouldn't it.

It's gotten a little silly though, in that when I don't have my camera with me, I feel nervous that I'll miss some perfect picture, or an eighty-eight. I have to stop worrying about that.