big william's world

And so it goes on with a verse for each day of the week like Soloman Grundy.
As a matter of interest I never liked the song nor met anyone else who did.

Twas on a Monday Morning,When I beheld my darling;She looked so neat and charmingIn every high degree;She looked so neat and nimble, O,A-washing of her linen, O,Dashing away with the smoothing iron,Dashing away with the smoothing iron,She stole my heart away.Twas on a Tuesday Morning,When I beheld my darling;She looked so neat and charmingIn every high degree;She looked so neat and nimble, O,A-hanging her linen, O,Dashing away with the smoothing iron,Dashing away with the smoothing iron,She stole my heart away.Wednesday - "A-starching of her linen,O"Thursday - "A-ironing of her linen, O"Friday - "A-folding of her linen-O"Saturday - "A-airing of her linen-O"Sunday - "A-wearing of her linen-O"

Iguana in repose

The following to be sung to the tune of "dashing away with a smoothing iron" which is one of the few folk songs from the midlands of England. I can't write music but the diligent among you will probably be able to hear it on the web somewhere.

When once I was a blogging o

Don't ask about the Ballet! - Two nights each with three short programs - I only really enjoyed one of the six programs!
Had some great dinners though and it's nice for us country types to go to a real city occasionally!
The plane photo was just to show I was at the airport - that was not the plane we went on silly!
The tulip bed looks as if the next color on display will be purple - probably when we are in England next week!

Coming Home

Closer

San Francisco Bay Bridge

Buddha has now been secured to the wall with a stainless steel screw hidden behind her left ear. You can see the dangerous proximity of the bedroom door - which we had left open with only the screen between me and the monster who knocked Buddha over.

In the night! - Buddha decided to become a reclining Buddha in the middle of the night (it/she used to sit on the wall!). Who knows what caused this life changing, human awakening event. There are bears, deer, pumas here. Right outside the bedroom patio door - which was open!
You HAVE to be excited about that even if the waterfalls didn't exactly wash you away!

The falls are like 100 Niagara Falls side by side. Like Niagara they are situated between two countries - Brazil and Argentina. 18 Million litres per second somebody said - enough to impress even C. Eng I suspect.

Boulder Falls Sunday

from the berries of a tree being applied by Piro who's dad used to take him into the jungle and show him which plant and insects you could eat. He took us for a walk in the jungle and poked a tarantula bigger than his hand out of it's hole in the bottom of a tree. He also cut open a termites nest and ate the eggs as well as disturbing an ants nest and getting them all over both arms and rubbing them in. He said it makes you less visible to the animals.
This took place in an Indian village where we met the chief and where they ran their generator once a week for those who had televisions. They typically had 10 children per family and seemed healthy and happy. They spoke fluent Portugese as well as their own language. The Chief's deputy, who is only 14 also spoke some English

we flew to Bueanos Aires and then to Sau Paulo then Manaus. Manaus is about 2000 miles up the Amazon where two rivers meet to form the Amazon it is a dump - a relic of the rubber boom 100+ years ago before the brits took seeds and grew the trees in Malaya. It has a fancy opera house from that time but besides that just a lot of industry - car factories honda motorcycle factories and a lot of electronics factories. You can click on this map I just discovered so you can check my spelling mistakes of place names if you want.

We spent four days on a small cruise ship (50 passengers) we just went up the Rio Negro - Black because of it's chemical make-up. Actually the water is just light brown if you put it in a bottle but the river really looks black. It has a pH of 4.6 which the chemists among you will know is pretty acidic.

One of the first things they did on the boat was to show a map of the Amazon Basin - like I showed you yesterday and put the countries of Europe on it one at a time to show that there was room for all the countries and room for some space between so it is HUGE!

Brazil is, of course, even bigger and the population is 180 million. Argentina is only 40 million and struggling to stay at that.

The river is full of piranha fish, crocodiles, fabulous plants, trees full of parrots, toucans, monkeys and snakes.

I was always scared of the jungle. Remember in 1984 where they had to be subjected to the thing they feared most? Winston (I think that was his name) was put with rats. Well I would have said the jungle but now I do not fear it - it is a calm tranquil place and in order to see any animals you have to try pretty hard and go at the right time of day. I have plenty of photos but haven't sorted them out yet.

Sorry if all that was boring - I will try to show you some photos of it all very soon.

We all need photos of Katie! perhaps if a few readers nag Ben and Elaine with comments here we will get some!

After a week in the more remote areas of the Amazon where some of the villages have electricity only once a week to watch tv and have a party - internet and cellphone connectivity does not exist.
I am giving, through this quick entry, the kiss of live to the blog. It may be a day or two before the daily scintilations resume but resume they will.
I have lots to tell and show you all.
I am home and there are no leaks, the sun is shining and the snow has all-but gone.
I still love you all!