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I have decided to set myself a new challenge in the hope that it will help rescue me from my present camera lethargy. I would prefer not to do it alone, so I would welcome anyone who cares to join me in this task. It is quite a simple challenge, although I imagine that some days it might be, ermm... challenging. I realise that it may not be a novel idea, but it is new to me. All right, all right, I'm getting to the point. Here it is. Today, as part of my duties as a professional wordsmith (believe me, I've been called worse) I had cause to visit thesaurus.reference.com, where I was looking for a synonym for the word 'embedded'. Whilst there, I noticed that they had a 'Word of the Day' (honest, it is the first time I have ever seen such a thing). Now, as someone who works with words, I thought that checking this out on a daily basis would be a great way to improve my vocabulary... alright, I thought that it would be a good way to waste 30 minutes every morning without feeling too guilty about not actually doing paid work... Anyway, whatever my motivation, I thought that it would be good to check it out every day, just to see what new words I can learn. It then struck me that I can marry my profession with my hobby in such a way as to rekindle my passion for both. I could check the word of the day, then try to capture an image that fits in with the definition. So that is my challenge. Hopefully you might join me - if not every day, then perhaps one day a week. I'll leave it up to you. So... to the tale. Since the temperatures have begun to rise at last, I decided it was time to transfer to my 'summer office' - otherwise known as the old potting shed. It has almost everything I need: a desk, a chair, electricity, windows (with a nice view of the garden and of my 'winter office'), walls, a roof, a couple of doors (one of which even closes!) and a telephone signal. The only thing that is missing is the internet connection, but that will be resolved once I get around to fitting a wireless network in the house. So, anyway, I have been happily working away in this little cosy corner, free from the distractions of the internet and daytime TV. Until today, that is. My cheap little laptop decided to get Bolshie on me, and steadfastly refuses to allow me to use the letters 'q' and 'a', or the 'caps lock', 'shift', 'function', 'ctrl', 'windows' or 'alt' keys. Most of these things I can learn to live without. The letter 'a' is a bit more difficult. I don't know why this has happened - just as I was getting on so well. I am almost certain that it has nothing to do with the coffee that I didn't spill on it. Back to PC World it goes.

I went down to the woods last year