Get yourself something

'Get yourself something' was what my mother used to write in my birthday card each year. The card would contain a cheque and she would always say 'I never know what to get you so just yourself get whatever you want'. The first birthday without your mother is always a bit difficult. Mothers never forget their child's birthday and I wasn't really looking forward to being reminded of the fact that she is no longer here.

My mother's estate is still being sorted out, but what we do know is that after all the bills are paid and done and dusted there will be money left for each of us. I guess we will invest it wisely, but for my first birthday alone I decided that I wanted to 'get myself something' from my mother that was entirely for me. She always enjoyed reading the blog and liked looking at my rubbish photos. They have mostly been taken with a little 'happy snappy' type camera and hence a bit hit and miss. I have never had a proper grown up camera! So my birthday present from my mum was a brand new digital SLR with a proper grown up lens that comes off!

It arrived a couple of days ago and I have been playing with it ever since and amazed at how different it is. I have not gone beyond the automatic settings yet but these are a couple of my first attempts, taken from the patio.

The sunset looking like a forest fire

The sky making amazing colours

The camera is a Nikon 5100. Thanks mum!