You'll be fine in the pouring rain all day long - just make sure you get under cover when you change battery / card / lens.

Danny's advice is certainly worth heeding too:

Water running on the front element is a royal pain...

A lot of them had backfocus problems (cured via debug menu for most of us) and there were strange tales of sloping viewfinders that I never experienced first hand.

I've not heard of it before but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened to others. Try using batteries of a different type (if you usually use Rechargeable NiMH then try some alkaline or lithium, or vice-versa) - I'm guessing the camera automatically detects the type of cell and it may have glitched and become stuck. Failing that, try re-installing the latest firmware. Failing that, give Pentax a call and see what they say (although it won't be covered by warranty any more unfortunately).

The bottom one cries out for a square crop starting at the right hand edge imo. Best shot of this set I reckon.

The second bird (third picture) is a robin, the first bird (pics 1,2 and 4) is a nuthatch. The other's a male chaffinch.

It's got to be the monkey on the pole for me - great expression and pose.

I do like the first one, bet that'd make a stunning large print

The trick with blowers and focussing screens is to hold the camera above you and blow upwards into it. This way the dust will fall on you, but that's Karma's price for getting fibres in there in the first place.

Unfortunately, whether you're good enough is irrelevant.

There will be photographers a lot worse than you who get successful exhibitions, and probably a fair few better who nobody will ever hear of. It's all about having the right way in with those sorts of things.

Know anybody you could ask a favour of in the gallery business? At the very least it'd be quite cool to have an exhibition and tick it off life's done list.

I had barely used a camera since October, then with the last three sunny days we've had I've shot 9 rolls of film and about 4GB worth of digital in 72 hours. Amazing the difference a little sunshine makes in Spring