My entire childhood is buried under an industrial estate and a landfill site together with the wildlife that few kids today will ever see. Consequently, they don't care either because no-one has ever taught them to. Your pictures will be all that remains one day so keep taking them. Is the local press interested?

That is quality.

You often reach a stage with macro when it changes from photo to art - this is art. Wonderful shot(s).

The poor Pentax 28-80 - one free with every P30! What everyone overlooks is that there are two versions (three if you include the Takumar badged one). The standard Pentax-A 28-80 is the one that gets the bad press. The other, far rarer version is the SMC Pentax-A 28-80. Get one of those and you will be very happy. ..... It took me about 3 years of checking every 28-80 that appeared on E bay before I found one - and it sold for peanuts !

I find a Joby sling style, over the shoulder/body strap to be excellent. They make much of its extending ability on their blurb but I've never found the need for it. The screw mount to the tripod lug is really robust. If I'm out with a tripod I carry the entire ensemble, horizontal in my hand, as I fully trust the Manfrotto geared head that I now use.

Great photos, making full use of the patterns available.

My other question has to be, "Where are all the cows for whom that huge quantity of silage is destined?" Many never see the outside of their factory floor these days. Everything is delivered to them in carefully metered doses and their (various) outputs go into holding tanks either for collection or spraying back onto the fields to produce next year's silage. The milk is likely marketed as being "wholesome organically produced" !

Another option is a field monitor. There are a couple of offerings that sometimes appear on Ebay. They have the virtues of being both battery and mains powered and they don't need extra software, just an HDMI cable - and yes, the K5 does have an HDMI output socket. I mount mine on a second tripod placed somewhere convenient. It isn't anywhere near as big as a laptop screen but it would be ample for precision focus stacking Roger. One annoyance that you will have to suffer no matter what system you choose is the fact that it will involve live view and a lot of banging and crashing inside the mirror box every time the camera times out or you make a goof.

The last one particularly is excellent.

At least the thought was there - which is more than others have offered (me included).

First one is lovely. I liked the second one until you mentioned that line