big william's world

The answer to my dreams!

Just drag and drop them he said - well I have made SOME progress.

The sun comes out the next morning apologizing for the mess the weather made yesterday.

The ugly house, unfortunately is across the street occluding the view somewhat. The flatirons still look good though don't they?

The bird on the window box, is trying to recover from near-hypothermia and the pansies are doing the same.

After Europe had gone to bed - it just kept snowing and snowing.

And while the man was shovelling and shovelling the Buddha, as the hat got heavier and heavier, resigned to hibernation.

The other Buddha, meanwhile, because she (or he or it) lives under a tree said "I don't know what all the fuss is about - I just put on MY had and my warm scarf and sit here looking regal.

(now to see if I can get the pic where I want it!) No it is at the top - advice on placing pictures where I want them would be useful. I don't see why cut-and-paste shouldn't work.

Anyway my readers are all intelligent - by definition so you can figure it all out

Buddha says it is not funny any more!
about 10 inches (25 centimeters) deep and still falling.
It was definitely a good idea to buy the 4 wheel drive Honda - it seems to scramble up the hills when others are turning their cars around and giving up.
Tell me tell me tell me what you want for Christmas! William (little) wants some new razor blades - cheap and easy to ship!

Amazing how a little of the leftover heavy cream can improve a sauce in a leftover-turkey pie!
It helps pasta sauces too!
Then we went to see "Babel" a fairly complicated movie with Kate Blanchet (who gets shot on a tour bus) and Brad Pitt. Rather poignant when you are going to Morocco soon.

BOOK REVIEWS:
I can't seem to get the photos where I want them but if you can't tell the difference between books and a turkey pie you have problems>
Easily, in my opinion, the best of these books is the "Mission Song" - even better than the Constant Gardener.
The Robert Oppenheimer (the one with the hat and the cigarette) is ongoing and very interesting but a bit too, physically, big to take on planes.
The God Delusion tends to hammer things home a bit too repeatedly for me. Especially as he is preaching to the choir (or preaching to the converted as my English readers would say it).
The United States of Arugula would not interest anybody outside the US I don't think but it is interesting for a yankee foodie like me.
I can already imagine the comments about what a "foodie" is!
I have just sold two bicycles and a television so I have money to buy ONE new bicycle.
Give me your comments.







On a more intellectual front:

Sorry guys I forgot all about you until just before the pecan pie so these are the only pictures.
Everything was great - the turkey was moist, tender and tasty, the baby sprouts with buttered pecans delicious, the roasted sweet potatoes with bacon vinaigrette amazing. The whole roasted cauliflower with olive oil and capers was dry and boring. Cauliflower needs something like cheese or Indian curry type flavorings I think.
Oh yes we had Cranberry, Ginger, Blood-orange (wow that looks sinister without the hyphen!) relish in lieu of cranberry sauce.
My first pecan pie - actually "bourbon pecan pie" was great! I cant imagine that some of my readers don't like pecans. Yes William really did make the pastry crust - and everything else too actually. M was working!
OK so I am so full I can barely lift the fingers to type.
Yes there were only two of us - friends from New Mexico were unable to come, friends from California were afraid of the weather. We have been away and attending so many group dinners that a bit of peace and quiet was more than welcome.
Those among you who are expecting Christmas presents from us had better come up with some ideas! Pending paternity suits need not apply! - direct descendants, their wives and children only.
We are going away for the latter part of December - first to Orlando - which usually has more Brits than Britain. Then to Morocco to escape from Christianity for the "holiday period"
Love you all!
William

I guess nobody liked the pool picture - just be grateful I wasn't in it!

I have just shopped for the greatest eating day of the year - tomorrow - Thanksgiving - so big here and yet nobody else does it.

Turkey is ALWAYS for dinner on Thanksgiving day with stuffing and cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.

I am substituting a pecan pie which I much prefer. Trouble is I have to make pastry which is not my medium. I am more of a yeast baker. I will show you the results if there are any.

I am considering cooking the turkey on the rotisserie but it is pretty big and I never tried it for a big bird before. Any suggestions?

We will have brussels sprouts - which they call brussel sprouts here - baby ones with pecans.

Roasted whole cauliflower too with olive oil and capers.

I got the recipes from M's magazines which I don't usually read - one is Gourmet Magazine the other is Bon Appetite. The November issues are always full of outrageous ideas for Thanksgiving dinner.

The pictures were trying to give an idea of how crowded and stocked the shops are.

Guten Apetit

The morning-mile-swim-ritual is hard after weeks away and the oxygen is a little sparse at this altitude but I can still do it! Even after being awake since 1 am.
There is no snow and the sun is shining. There are no leaves on the trees though and they have arranged themselves in piles demanding attention.

M is already off on more travels - Phoenix tonight for one night.

No more travels until mid-december so I guess I had better get back to the fireguard project with which you are all acquainted and has not progressed perceptibly in a month.

Sorry for the prolonged absence, we were in the cyber silence of southern Sicily then the trip home took an extra day.
This is a picture of our new Mall in Boulder - see the flatirons in the background to the right. The rocks I showed you photos of with snow on them a few weeks ago.
Weather is quite mild and sunny today but not quite so much so as Sicily.
Must water plants and do three week's worth of washing now more tomorrow
Thanks for all the comments.

But when you get down there it is fully winterized. Shuttered cafe's with stale posters about what was. No people, no place to walk because roads are for cars and scooters with no sidewalks.
Meanwhile back up in Taormina the shops are open, pizzas and coffee smelling good and well dressed Italians strutting their stuff everywhere just for me!
Tomorrow we rent a car and drive across the island to Agrigento. I am nervous about these narrow streets where every slight widening of the street has a car parked in it with a dent on it and a cat under it.
I am off to try and stop my spammers now.

Sorry I missed the R out and confused thousands of readers. Taormina is in Sicily right next to Mount Etna which is very active at the moment. At night you can see the scalding soup spewing out of the top of the mountain just like it should but, most of the time, doesn't. I mean you see Mt Fuji and the Wrekin and they just sit there but this one puts on a show and showers Sicily in dust and ash all the time.
Above the view of Etna by night is the view out to sea from the town, which sits on top of steep cliffs like dropped spaghetti.
M is presenting her lung cancer drug this morning so I have time to attend to my world readers.
I had dinner with Danes last night 10 Danes seems disproportionate compared to the size of this lung cancer meeting but like all Danes they were healthy, good looking and spoke perfect English.
Yesterday went to Siracusa - which has the remains of a Greek theatre which was butchered into a different kind of theatre by the Romans and afflicted with steel railings and concrete steps by our contemporarys. The Greeks liked to look at natural views so built these theatres in scenic locations. The Romans liked to look at their, cleverly engineered, structures so build arches and walls across the middle of their theatres.
Archimedes was born in Siracusa

Drove about one hour from the Hotel in Taormina up to 2,000 metres then cable car for another thousand and then four-wheel drive buses then walked to a sulphur (sulfer for my compatriots) spewing hole with a fast running river of orange-hot-lava right below us.
The heat was burning our faces but the air around was way below freezing.
Back home for sunshine and gelato.
Taormina is perched on cliffs high above the sea with glistening little shops and restaurants in every alley and usually down some steps.

All the delights of the big-fat Kit Kat together with the one thing English "candy" lacks - peanut butter!

A truly great invention.

The weather is rather windy and cold now and we are fed-up with rabbit, bad coffee and bad wine.
Off to Sicily tomorrow so at least I will KNOW the coffee will be divine - it's Italy.
Readers are directed to williamslittleworld.blogspot.com because I have not figured out how to put in in the HTML yet.
Love you all till the next time

This is the exact view from the bedroom but, instead, the sea is white and wild - imagine the angry foam flailing the rocks and then skulking back after it fails to demolish anything except a few chairs.
The Mediterranean always seems to remain blue though.

Malta is not one island but an archipelago, the other significant island is Gozo and on the right is one of the oldest man-made buildings in the world. Much older than Stonehenge.

We arrived here on Sunday from chilly Chicago and have not needed coats since! Blue skies, flowers everywhere and pleasant breezes.
Check up on the health of Jeremy my grandson on williamslittleworld.blogspot.com I hope he is getting better. It must be his advanced years that are getting to him, I know the feeling - he is now a whole year old.
Here we seem to be living on rabbit and fish. There is much evidence remaining of the 200 year British presence here big square electrical plugs, dodgy plumbing, fish and chips, Marks and Spencer, Maltesers etc.