In which blogs are like buses

Posted by Tania Kindersley.

You don't see one for days, and then three come along at once. Or something like that.

I have done a very, very naughty thing. I bought a new camera. I must admit it was partly because of this blog; I was getting envious and fretful about all the people with the ravishing photographs and bored of my own point and shoot efforts. I wanted to give you some more of the good aesthetic stuff.

Then I saw a picture of the new Olympus PEN E-PL1. It was all neat and boxy and black and retro. I began to yearn for it. I had absolutely no excuse. I blame the internet. It made things too easy for me. I just said what the hell, pressed a button and the next day the thing arrived from Aberdeen. I was so excited I signed the delivery form in completely the wrong place. 'Oh, that was really ditzy,' I said, bursting into laughter. The driver was kind and humoured me, although if he ever had any preconceptions about flaky females, I just confirmed all of them.

I still don't know how all the buttons work, but it has many, many functions and I managed to stumble upon some of them. I don't know why I can't just sit down and read the manual like a normal person. I suppose that would be far too pedestrian and obvious.

Anyway, here are the very first shots from my new BOX OF DELIGHT -

A little apple blossom from my fledgling apple tree.

The tiny blue flower whose name I cannot remember. As Dorothy Parker once said: you can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think.

Look, look - it can even make a humble dandelion look sexy. We have a plague of dandelions this year, I have no idea why. Again with the horticulture.

And how about this one, in nostalgic black and white. It's like a 1960s dandelion. It is the Twiggy of the dandelion world. It shall soon go swinging down the King's Road and pay a visit to Granny Takes a Trip and then go and catch a late showing of Blow Up.

And guess who just happened to be ready for her close-up? Look at her, all dignity on the monument.

Left profile? Oh, if you insist.

Is it time for the chasing of the sticks?

No? All right, if you must go on with this entirely gratuitous exercise. I'll just wait. (Her sister was away digging for moles, so did not have to endure the tiring posing.)

A hellebore, drenched in light.

And one final elegant blossom.

I was feeling a bit fretful this morning, and then this glorious contraption arrived and quite banished the blues. The only problem is that it is such a piece of genius that I cannot really take any credit for the results. It's the machine, not me. Still, good for one's vanity, I suppose. But don't you think these pictures are a whole order of magnitude better than those taken with my old bog standard compact camera? Lovely people at Olympus, I salute you. You deserve your name. You are perfect mounts of brilliant technology.

These pictures are for my mum and my sister, neither of whom are feeling at the very top of their game just at the moment. They deserve a little dose of delight.