A new camera

Aside from a rather too floral short-sleeved shirt which I purchased about three years ago and have never worn, my two worst purchases of recent times have been my Mountfield ride-on mower - poorly made, flimsy, unreliable and not at all up to the job (and that's the replacement one!) - and my Canon Powershot S95 compact camera which wasn't cheap and has been about as robust as a china cup in a bullring.

So two nights ago I did some research and have hopefully fixed the latter problem with a new camera. I haven't spent a fortune, as unless you spend about a grand these days (and considerably more if you're talking ride-on mowers) it seems to be the norm that things are cheaply made in the Far East and not expected to last.
I've plumped for a camera somewhere between a compact and a DSLR, what is known as a 'bridge' camera.

Biggest attraction for me is that it has a 26x optical zoom and, at the other extreme, a 1cm macro facility. Now either of those extremes would be impossible with a proper camera so there are obviously compromises to be made, but for what I need it for I'm hoping that my Pentax X5 will serve me well.
It also has a tiltable viewing screen which helps greatly with those awkward angle shots or when the sun is glaring.

It arrived in the post this morning, but unfortunately I had to make a trip to the butchers - more on this later - so I only had about 20 minutes to play with it. Anyhow, here's what I managed in that short time.
I think there'll be a lot more photos on my blog in the future.