Well, I haven’t been here since the 14th of December 2011! – for my wedding! !

Click on the button below for a trip down memory lane…

Welcome back to 2020! The reason for today’s visit was an invitation to a private tour around Kelmarsh’s well-known Gardens (where Mrs P is a volunteer-gardener).

9.55am: On arrival, we followed the arrows to the rear of the Hall, where a member of the Kelmarsh team pointed us in the right direction. Given the tropical weather of the past few days, this morning looked like it was going to be a bit of a disappointment! There was a trace of blue in the sky – just a trace – but that was to change later to grey, accompanied by a well-needed downpour of rain of biblical proportions! Luckily, we were to miss the moisture by a whisker!

10.10am: Given the really hot weather of late – and the lack of rain, first impressions of the Gardens were excellent, with hardly a weed in sight, with a blaze of colour for us to enjoy!

…even if I didn’t know the names of some most of what I saw!

Mrs P did though!

10.25am: Looking at the sky, where its light blue hues had changed to a depressing mid-grey – so we quickened our pace..!

…but in spite of the deteriorating weather…

…the flora still looked in rude health!

10.30am: We could hear thunder in the distance, so we called it a day and headed back to the car.

10.40am: It had been a very memorable (but slightly curtailed) visit, but the Gardens looked fantastic and it was great to see Kelmarsh Hall again after all these years. We hadn’t been in the car long before it belted it down with rain, so it looked as if our timing had been well-judged.

As usual, click on the button below to see the photo gallery with some additional photographs (and none of my chat!)

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Return to Kelmarsh appeared first on Steve's Blog.

No, not the latest timepiece from Transylvania, but a cheap trick to get you to read this far!

In many places, the clocks have just been altered – back an hour – and it got me thinking about the process of changing the times of ALL the timepieces in a typical 21st century household – and (ironically), how long the process takes. When I was a boy, back in the 70s, it was a simple case of ‘the one on the mantelpiece’ and ‘the one in the bedroom’ but that belongs to a bygone era, as we now share our lives with so many electronic gadgets.

Being ever-so-slightly OCD (and a gadget-lover), it’s important to me that ALL the devices that show the time show the SAME time, so I made a list of those that need changing – just in case I forgot one! (that would be soooooooo wrong!!) – and I was surprised at the result. 10?, 20?, 30?

Then, just when I thought I’d got them all, I found a ‘clock’ in the most of obscure of places – our electric toothbrush! Yes, the toothbrush! Why? I can understand that it might need a timer, but does it really need a CLOCK as well. I can’t recall the last time I thought: ‘I wonder what the time is? – I must check my toothbrush’.

Anyway, back to clock-counting. With iPODs, digital cameras, cars, portable sat-navs, time-switches, phones, central heating, microwaves and VCRs (remember those? for younger readers, it’s a device, the size of two Sky-boxes for recording TV programmes, limited a total of three hours recording, and relying on brick-shaped tapes, the size of a err, brick!), the clock list grows each year. In all, here I counted a total of 32 devices!

32?

32??

Luckily a few of these, update themselves automagically, but try remembering which ones they are. This results (in this house anyway) in changing them once just before bedtime, only to find the following morning that they’re still an hour out, because they’ve auto-updated the updated time! Doh!

So, how did you get on? What’s the total number of timepieces in YOUR house? – and where’s the most obscure place you’ve found a ‘clock’?

I must get out more!

…or be kept in!!!!

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Count Clockula Lives! – an OCD confession appeared first on Steve's Blog.