A camera switch

We've had a number of bright sunny — but quite frosty — mornings these last few days. With no fog and better light, I've gone out a couple of times for walks with Callie and with my camera. It's best to take advantage of the clear mornings, because the winter rains are starting. It rained for several hours overnight, actually.

France went back on what is called "winter time" last weekend, so we can go out walking an hour earlier now. That means heading out at 7:30 or so instead of 8:30. It's chilly but pleasant at that hour. Of course, the flip side is that it gets dark a lot earlier in the evening.

This is mushroom season, but the weather has been so dry since July that there aren't as many champignons as usual. The plumber doing our shower work told me yesterday that he knows the vineyard out back very well, because he grew up in Saint-Aignan and his grandmother lived not more than a mile or two from our house. He said there used to be a lot of the black mushrooms called trompettes de la mort in the woods here. Don't let the name scare you — those are good eating, and are also known as the "horn of plenty" (corne d'abondance) mushroom.

When I say I've been taking my camera on my morning walks, I don't mean the same camera. I've started using the "new new" Panasonic Lumix TZ60 (known as the ZS40 in North America) again, instead of the "new old" Panasonic TZ18 (ZS8). I think I've found the TZ60 settings that work for me, and I'm glad to be using the "new" camera again. The photos here haven't been processed except for cropping. You can click or tap on the images to see them at a larger size.