No I no longer support him - I would love to but he would rather go without a sale than sell Pentax gear it seems. Was a time when he would at least order the stuff for you but now? Forget it. But still he is listed as a Pentax dealer, and, what a joke, has Pentax adverts in the shop.

Apart from the 60-250 (maybe) I am happy with my gear for now so when that comes out, if I have the dosh, I shall have a trip up to Urk I expect. I can always combine in it with a trip to Blokzijl, where we used to live. Unless I have a trip to the UK planned around then - in which case Watford will be on the itinerary !

It is frustrating being a Pentax User at times though

Oh I know about Camera Nu, and Kamera Express, and Konijnenberg, all a reasonable trip away. My point is that my local, official Pentax dealer, whom I would love to support, refuses to sell me Pentax gear. Even at full official Pentax prices. And there is nothing in Amersfoort, Hilversum or Utrecht either. All good sized towns/cities, but no Pentax to be had. It is not only in Scotland and Ireland that Pentax are thin on the ground.

That might explain the dramatic drop in price of the K20D here. After I got mine of course

The 60-250 is of interest to me but it will take a lot of saving before I get one.

It's the same here in my town in Holland. I have an official Pentax dealer here, but I couldn't look at a K20D there - he wouldn't even bring one in for me to see - but wanted to flog me a Canikon instead. He did this when I went for my Ds too, but I had hoped he'd changed. But he hadn't. None of the bigger towns/cities around had one for me to see either.
No wonder so many people end up with the main two brands.

I am trying to read Dave Evanson's Cautionary tale posting - but I keep getting re-directed to the forum index page. Anyone else having this trouble or know why I am having this problem?
I can read posts in other threads with no problems.

Ah Sicily and public transport - my son and his GF went a couple of years ago, and ended up hitch-hiking a lot, or being abandoned in a deserted village at siesta time as the bus didn't run then. Still they had a great time, even if they did come across bullet casings and a pool of blood near their campsite one morning .
Sounds like a great excuse to go back to Florence though- if you need an excuse that is!

I'm not sure I understand the mechanics of bokeh, or why some lenses have a better bokeh than others. I find the Bigma has a pretty good smooth bokeh, certainly better than the photo you link to, which is a great photo ruined by that awful bokeh.

You have got me thinking though - I shall have a look through my photos and study the bokeh a bit more, see if I can tell just by looking which brand of lens I used.

Aha! Good luck with the dog. It seems to take forever before they can travel to the UK, but it is so much better than quarantine! Both mine are "England Proof". At least nowadays you don't also have to get them checked by the local official Vet and pay a fortune for that privilege - when I had mine done they charged something over a €100 per dog - just to read the chip and stamp a bit of paper . Now all I have to do is make sure the rabies vaccination doesn't expire.

I too like dark cold crisp mornings, but they seem, like sunny summers to be becoming a thing of the past. Certainly here in NL we have mostly just grey damp not very cold winters now. Enjoy your remaining time in Spain. It is hard being apart from the family for so long, but I hope you both cope OK.

I like 3 and 4 the best. They are difficult to do well as George says, simply because they are so popular. I like sunrises more - they may not have the spectacular colours of a sunset, but they tend to have more atmosphere to them.
Try taking sunsets with the sun behind you too, to capture the golden light on the surrounding countryside/buildings. Often far better than the setting sun.
I hope you get to at least spend the winter in Spain - moving back to the UK in winter strikes me as a depressing prospect. Not that summer has been that different to winter this year, just a tad warmer

It's difficult for me, as an British woman (albeit one living in the Netherlands) to understand this question too. Maybe you could rephrase it for us Beaky. Thanks.