big william's world

To Henry and fresh snow.
Fotunately Henry was high in a tree ---

I walked past the Chrysler Building - starting miles away on a clear
COLD day yesterday. It was once the tallest building in the world. Now
just a baby.

NYC catching up with London

Off to New York City Tomorrow for four nights. Four days of rain is
predicted as well as shows and restaurants.

J loves to push one of these around and fill it with things like
"stool softener" and "hemorrhoid preparations"

Tim would have loved it.
Most won't understand it!

Stealing Henry's peanuts

In the Gelateria thanks to photographer Nik

In Patagonia wearing my old Patagonia Jacket

Jumps up on the window sill and stares in demanding food!

I get confused commenting on my own blog because each blog becomes a notice board in itself and doesn't relate to the blog itself. I am not complaining - nice to get any comments at all!

I am just using my prerogative as a blogger and answering questions in subsequent blogs.

An acrostic is a piece of writing in which the letters at the beginning or end or some other part of each line spell words. Clearly Gill already has the idea.

No I haven't given up skiing - I may go o Friday, I didn't go last week but must have been about twelve times now altogether. The pictures were all looking the same so I stopped boring you with them. Snowfall has been above average in all the resorts here.

I am still suffering from an arm injury sustained while skiing two months ago or so. It has made me realize how important the daily swim is. It is getting easier now but still provides a sharp daily reminder of the dangers of careening (or trying to) down mountains at my age!

The Mont Bell shop now has, of course, a big sale of all such warm clothes MK - there is a new Patagonia store just opened on Pearl Street - far from North Face, Mont Bell, Helly Hansen etc.

I took a picture of my new haircut in one of their (Patagonia's) mirrors yesterday - I will post it not for you to see me but the store.

The recipe for the soda bread said it was good with smoked salmon (which does contain nitrates I think) and it is!

More healthy without the scrambled eggs on littlewilliamsworld.

MK should also note the complete absence of butter! - I lost my ten pounds but a little more lost would be nice.

On awheywithwords william richard millard requests the pleasure of jennifer dorothy rossington (or wilkinson if you prefer) in the acrostic competition

Never heard of "Corned Beef and Cabbage" in England - even growing up in a city with a large Irish population (Birmingham aka Brum)
It is eaten everywhere here and I cooked it today - a big day in the US - people wearing green and even drinking green beer!
The corned beef is entirely different from what the English call Corned Beef - which is equally good but comes from Argentina in a can.
It is, however, exactly the same as the Salt Beef eaten in England - more in London than Brum.
I was all ready to brine it myself but it takes two weeks and I only had one day. All the meat departments had some ready salted though so all I had to do was boil it and add veggies and cabbage near the end of cooking. The secret of making it pink is the addition of Sodium Nitrate - this is the difference between curing and brining and keeps ham and beef pink after cooking.
The shop I went to "Whole Foods" claims that nitrates are harmful so they just used salt and spices in their brine and the result was brown beef not pink. The flavor, it is claimed, is not changed.
Some Irish Soda Bread - easy to make from start to finish in an hour and the day was celebrated.

This was a Google pic - mine, as expained, was not pink.

A fresh dump!

I rode 20 miles to Longmont and was very glad of my heated grips!

Vacuum Cleaners - that is not original but I can't remember who parodied Tim Rice.

For Dyson praise and details go to Gillselevenses - my only gripe is with the pipe - difficult to extract and when you do it is like a very strong spring with it's own ideas about where to go.

The middle one is MK and W's favorite (they hate it) - I found, practically new, it in a dumpster (skip) and it is excellent for, non-liquid kitchen accidents.

Then the back pack vac - wonderful - the first one I had was home made - I removed the wheels from a canister vac and fixed it to an old rucksack. Problem is it got very hot on my back. This baby is the real McCoy - there is an air gap between it and me. It is also relatively lightweight, powerful and has a very long cord. Dyson does not do corners and this one is great for hard floors and corners.

An appropriate poem in over on awheywithwords.

Another thing Iphones can do and another thing we can thank Mr Bush for:
We now change our clocks on the FIRST Sunday in March instead of, like the rest of the world, the LAST Sunday. What a moronic megalomaniac!
No doubt Ben will have noticed this on his trip this week. Hope you had a good trip Ben how about a blog?
On the book The Road which I showed you yesterday - the story is fairly simple and we have no idea what caused the apocalypse only that it was many years earlier and that there is not much left in the world for people to eat or drink. Well written with some interesting examples of human nature good and bad.
Yes I knew McCarthy wrote No Country For Old Men" but I haven't seen that yet.

Anyone who has been to see me in Boulder will have been to the Bookstore - housed in an old ballroom with big rooms and small rooms, busy rooms and quiet rooms all full of new and some used books. The "Living Poets Society" meets there second Tuesday of the month to read and discuss a book by a current poet. Since the group started last November, numbers have risen and it is a great success.
The most recent new member was born in Coundon Coventry and went to Bablake School (where W and B went) more than 50 years ago!
The books above include the worst poetry book I ever read - the pretty red one on the left by Robert Hass and the best one next to it by Charles Simic I will post one in awheywithwords.blogspot.com.
The Road, on the right, I just read and is an excellent description of a man and his young son after some global Apocalypse. Sounds depressing but so did A Thousand Splendid Suns - which E clearly enjoyed a lot. Both excellent descriptive writing even if we don't like what is described.
Behind the books you can see that the Tulips are hurrying along to catch the last of the (inevitably yet to come) snow. The bookstore photograph is a library pic taken in some spring past.



Did I mention my new phone? I monitor the weather in various places I think about a lot and one night the temperatures were all the same!
The snow is still here melting and the vestigial snowman is still visible.
No wonder the back lawn looks patchy in the summer!
Lest you think I just sit around reading I have replaced a dozen or so tiles on the roof this week - having been to the Monier rooftile plant in Denver and scrounged some "samples" - reminded me of the old Marley days! One day I'll show you my vacuum cleaners too!

W + MK Border Grill Santa Monica.
A favorite for 12 years

Sunday Santa Monica

Malibu

Looking towards Di's House from the accountant's office.

I love LA

Room with a view!

Unfortunately only for two nights

Well apart from skiing and sulking about the cold weather - this baby has occupied my mind and won my heart. My new Iphone. Apart from making phone calls, sending emails and text messages you can rent movies on it - I rented The Bourne Ultimatum just to see what it is like to watch a movie on such a small screen.
It was quite watchable, The screen is small but very high definition. It costs $3.99 to rent the movie for one month but when you start to watch it it expires after 24 hours and just disappears.

I can view and create blogs but I can only post photos I have taken with the phone. All recent pictures except these have been taken with the phone. No it can't take it's own picture.

You zoom in on things by stretching the picture between thumb and forefinger.

It can get the internet off air or from a "hot-spot". It has only taken me two weeks to figure it out!

Tulips wondering where the sun went

Snow forecast tomorrow.