Monday 27 April 2015

Sandwich

Just been for a short break to Kent with our lifelong (nearly!) friends Pete & Carol.
This is the gateway to the town from the quay

A great sign on a doorway seen on our way to meet our friends and have lunch at...

...The George & Dragon.
We drove straight past and then had a job to find it on foot as it was behind scaffolding.
Beer and food were excellent

Thursday 23 April 2015

New Camera - Panasonic DMC-TZ60

Got a new camera - don't tell SWMBO.
It's a Panasonic DMC-TZ60  'point and shoot' compact camera. The last camera was a Panasonic point and shoot but it has recently been making funny creaking noises when the lens is extended, and I don't think the picture quality has been quite so good of late.
This one has a 30x zoom, wireless connectivity, GPS and the main reason for buying it...a proper optical viewfinder, as the LCD screen is so hard to see in the sunlight.
There's a huge array of manual settings but, as always, I expect I'll just use it on 'Auto' which is brilliant.
We are going to Australia later in the year and I assume there will be some sunshine so I figured the optical viewfinder option was fairly essential.
When the sun is shining, all I can see is my big nose reflected on the screen so then it's just a case of press the shutter and hope for the best.
The image stabilisation system is phenomenal. These two images of the moon shot on consecutive nights were taken with the camera hand held, at almost 30x zoom.
Even with my shaky hands, look at the quality.
Click on the image to enlarge it.


Sunday 19 April 2015

Wisley R.H.S. Gardens - Greenhouse

The HUGE greenhouse



Very unusual plant - never did find a label!

Thursday 16 April 2015

Wisley R.H.S. Gardens 3

Lots of Spring flowers - of course!


Nice new lake feature

Monday 13 April 2015

Wisley R.H.S. Gardens 2

Here's the main house and formal water lily pond/lake

No water lilies in March though!

From the position above, if you turn through 180 degrees you see this new garden.
Very nice, but I wouldn't fancy looking after it!

Thursday 9 April 2015

Wisley R.H.S. Gardens

Went to visit Wisley Gardens the other day as the weather was so nice.
This is the crocus carpet in the lawn as you enter the gardens.


Well advanced bedding plants!


Saturday 4 April 2015

HPB Blore Hall - Peak Railway

For SWMBO's 60th - we went on the Peak Railway!
...and a very good time was had by all...










Wednesday 1 April 2015

HPB Blore Hall - Tissington

Tissington Hall

St.Mary's Church




Tissington Well