Showers.

Hooray, it's the Winter Solstice. After tonight the days start getting longer though oddly enough sunsets have been getting later for a week while sunrise won't start getting earlier until the beginning of January. (Information from Countryfile.) 

Here it's been a day of blustery showers but was dry enough in the morning for me to head off down to the zoo. It took nearly three hours but I got the whole of the gravel patch by the wolf dogs cleared of weeds, wet leaves and tiny cones. So a satisfying morning. There had been a few short showers while I was working and heavy rain started right at the point when I was packing up.

And with the showers came a rainbow. As I was taking photos I realised that there is a problem with my camera and this time I think it may signal the end of this camera. Yesterday when I spotted the shadow in the centre of the photos I thought it was a mark on the viewfinder or the lens. I gave both a clean which didn't get rid of it. I had a closer look today and there is a line or scratch on the lens but it's on the inside. Possibly some sand has got in there. Unfortunately this camera doesn't have removable lenses and my guess is that it will be too expensive to send the camera off to be cleaned. We plan to go to Shrewesbury in the New Year to look at tiles for the bathroom and there's also a camera shop there. I may wait until then to make a decision about the camera. For the time being it's either ignore the blob or use the smaller camera or the phone. Hmm.

One thing that did get done was writing up the autumn entry for my journal, a job that's been hanging over me for a while. Sometimes it feels like a chore but it's worth it to be able to look back through the journal to see what was happening in our lives in past years.