Day 285

Tonight it was my turn to hold our monthly book club meeting. It's spring here and the nights are starting to draw out, so we were able to sit on the veranda sipping our drinks, listening to the skylarks and watching the sun go down, which was very nice indeed.

I put the camera on the tripod, set the shutter onto self-timer and then leapt over the electric fence in an attempt to get into the frame in time. As you can tell in this shot, I only just made it!

And here's one I took from behind the lens, complete with the ubiquitous Pookie.

Pookie likes sleeping under the veranda. I think all the noise we were making must have disturbed her, because she slinked off, disgruntled.

As part of the evening, my friend Judith showed me how to make the Kiwi national dish, pavlova. She makes her meringue with crushed vanilla pods and covers it with a home-made lemon topping instead of cream. It's incredible. I cut it into eight pieces. There were seven of us at book club, which means I've got a piece left for breakfast tomorrow morning. Being able to eat bizarre things for breakfast has got to be one of the many plus points of living on your own. :-)

I took quite a few shots of the pavlova, but none of them did it justice. I just don't 'get' photographing food. People and animals are easy: press the shutter when they're *doing* something. Flowers are easy: take them from an unusual angle and/or process the image in an unusual way. Landscapes are easy: wait for amazing light. But food; what can you do with food (other than eat it?)

And finally, an abstract shot. Can you guess what it is?

Okay, I'm off to do one of the following things: either clear up the mess, or to go to bed and leave the mess till the morning. I'll let you guess which.