Clutton bunfight

soup of the day
which was served within five minutes of my arrival










mine host rushing around with a print out of our orders which we had submitted by email
Hunters Rest Inn Menu










I ordered this fish pie and it was delicious *****


HUNTERS OGGIES
Giant sized pastries, with tasty fillings of MIXED SMOKED FISH - smoked haddock, trout and salmon in Cheddar sauce £8.25











my nighbour, Kathryn Schmidt, clicked me on the phone cam
with my tie a present from Berlin
given to me by my daughter




cider BROADOAK PHEASANT PLUCKER 330ml 6.0% £1.05 brewed by Broadoak Cider Co., Clutton
local brew but pasteurised not scrumpy
Address: Cider Mill, Clutton Hill Farm, Kings Lane, Clutton, Bristol, BS39 5QQ
Phone: 01761 453119
The Pheasant Plucking Song






resident dawg
















a bit too exciting for one spouse
and time for a nap














Lee Paltridge
from New Zealand

delightful views across the Chew Valley to the Mendip Hills beyond


























Josephine on the way home








Saturday, 24th. September 2005 at The Hunters Rest, Clutton















and thank you Jane McCredie, for the lift back to Bristol


clutton bunfight - Google Search

Clutton walk

what do you think these two ladies are saying on the bus from Bristol, Temple Meads?















The bus stop is after Pensford past the A37 / A368 roundabout
at the high wall protecting the orchards of (I think) Cholwell Hall
Today young do graffiti and tags but in old days scrumping (stealing) apples from orchards was fun.



King Lane, Clutton Hill,
X: 363000m Y: 160500m
http://old-maps.co.uk/
shows Chelwood House and that the North Somerset Railway was in a tunnel under here










this derelict post box
is not more than about 50 years old.


E II R









country fruits

blackberries
good for jam making

and pies with apple






rose hips make a vitamin C rich syrup found in old style cough medicines
Vegetable Medicines: "Super-C Soup
1 cup seedless rose hips
1 quart water
2 tablespoons honey (or more for a sweeter soup)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon yogurt or sour cream
Soak rose hips in water overnight. The next day, simmer the rose hips, water, honey, and cinnamon for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat, cool slightly, and whirl in a blender until smooth. Chill and serve with yogurt or sour cream, if desired."



walk back towards Bristol
and turn right
K. S. NOT LEFT :-)








and again turn right up the lane towards Nap Hill







I find peace in the lanes, last year it was raining
but I didn't care













this footpath over the stile leads back to Clutton






another good source of vitamin C for the winter


elder: "The elder shrub (Sambucus nigra L.) has long been famed as a source of the blue-black berries used to make elderberry wine and jelly. More important, its berries and flowers have been used medicinally for centuries to fight off respiratory infections and other ailments."
elderberry wine - Google Image Search






My mother showed me how to spot bird's nests and here is a highway for foxes and badgers.

















bracken or fern?
the geometry has always facinated me








We are looking back at a great hedgerow oak.
Farmers planted these for their descendants to use to repair their roofs, or make furniture from the mature timber.
Patriots planted oaks for the future of the Royal Navy of HMS Victory,
England's Wooden Walls






Hart's tongue ferns
Asplenium scolopendrium





the camera auto-focussed on the bracken filled hedge
but I wanted to the first touch of autumnal colours in the valley bottom to be sharpest

note the convex slope which a sign of a landscape made by water, here eroding the limestone (for a soldier dead ground)




the dark coppice but the camera made it lighter






for me this is like a model garden, and
a few stones japanese style would complete it

this coppice is a bit neglected but provided the poles used in gardens,
where today we use bamboo or even plastic tubes
























I made this lighter to show the strata in the dark bank to the left




















the camera adjusted itself for the dark picture









water coming out of the ground

a spring?

Fry's Bottom Wood and the site of Fry's Bottom Colliery is hidden to the right


this was the start of a very long and steep climb up Nap Hill
and a good heart lung work out














another spring











and just before the triangle at Kings Lane and the left turn to the The Hunters Rest Inn
a 4 x 4 stopped,



and it was Richard Stevens to the rescue
Trampolines, Pedal Go-Karts, BalanzBikes, tricycles and other outdoor-toys
Pensford, Bristol
Utcombe Toys
Utcombe Farm
Stanton Wick
BS394DB 01761 490604
Active Leisure UK
his toy shopwe are new on the web he said




he had given Kathryn Schmidt
a lift after she walked up to his farm to ask the way
(from Australia)














his 4 x 4 exits left

the bunfight awaits













two spanish chestnuts which I found in the lane,

and my train and bus tickets

Temple Meads

Arriving at Bristol Temple Meades
just off the Virgin train from Birmingham New Street



the white tile facing to the building washes down easily and keeps fresher than stone









I believe this GWR logo to be Edwardian about 1910














a classic bench with the Great Western Railway GWR lLogo from about 1920






I love this dramtic light

the refreshment room is spot lighted








the second train shed which was used for the Clifton branch line but is now a car park






elegant wind screens cut down driving rain and snow
















this head is by the bus stop at the end of the oldest building

its companion has been stolen so I wanted to record it











Post Code Addresses usful in maps
1 BS1 6QQ Club (Great Western Railway Staff Association), Approach Road
2 BS1 6QQ Great Western Railway Staff Association, Club, Approach Road
3 BS1 6QQ Taxi Drivers Rest, Approach Road

Bomb Census Bristol: The Blitz In Brislington

One of the great Victorian "train sheds"


Temple Meads Station by Isambard Kingdom Brunel architect,
at Bristol, England,
UK, 1840 (circa),

Badgerline	375	Bristol to Bridgwater	Mon to Sat (every 60 mins)	Jul 2005
Via Temple Meads- Whitchurch-Pensford- Clutton-Farrington Gurney

After each Bunfight I await the train home here






















the furniture and the beer are not so good but I love this room for its architecture



















the bar is new too

New Street Wednesday afternoon

Busking in Birmingham from Bratislava in Slovakia












"LAST CITY !"

and still an evening paper
Birmingham Evening Mail

and in the morning
Birmingham Post










after a lot of tuning up

full speed ahead
with an up tempo gravel voiced bluesey style on Kazoo too

the marracca sounding beer can is the rhythm section

today in Fordbridge

Aerial Photo Multimap.com B37 5BX


bigger

from my kitchen window

the demolition workers are having a lunch break in the corner of the car park








the panorama from my daughter's bedroom
12 noon gmt the shadows are pointing due north

wider

I am winning

Harvest moon a couple of nights ago





















five years ago my lucky rainbow














1280 x 1024 x 24 BPP
off the memory stick with
Jessops Universal Card Reader
which worked straight out of the box


and MobTime Cell Phone Manager
sorted my phone camera problems once I learned how to use it

Right click download files

CAPI_Worker Module does not crash
and the pictures will be blogged in a while

the house of iPod

I though no it cant be

yes - it was an Apple logo in the Bullring Mall, Birmingham

Apple Store
Level 3, Upper Mall West

the house of iPod







I drooled when I saw this two screen Apple Macintosh G5 set up

on the floor the bass boom box



Bullring, Birmingham - Now hiring for Creatives















Genius Bar

iPod and iTunes Workshop



resident in the
Genius Bar

Johnny, Toby and Andy


















another photographer and the two girls at the tail of the bull are his subjects

Jailbreak 2005

I thought these guys were on the way home from a demo !

I met Arran Ludlow-Rhodes,
Chris Staples, Richard Walmsley and Dave Tracey
on the forecourt of New Street Station, Birmingham


Beacon Radio Jailbreak
18.09.2005 - .. at The Quarry Shrewsbury

Challenge yourself to return your team of 4
to The Quarry from a secret location.
Cash prizes.
Funds will go to SAFER & Hope House Children's Hospice.
More: Shropshire Ambulance First Emergency Response (SAFER)

Participant teams of 4 will be taken to a mystery destination from where they will try and return to the start point in the shortest time.

A Cash Prize of £400 will await the first (Non-Cheating) team home, other prizes will await the best fancy dress and most unique mode of transport. Jailbreak 2003 raised £21,440 for excellent causes, we want Jailbreak 2005 to be even more successful.

Hi SANTA !!!

these four young ladies called out to me

"Santa what am I going to get for Christmas?"


not a team tho'

on the way home

I forgot which way the 57 went, so when it headed out of Solihull towards the Coventry Road, I changed buses at this bus stop, which is on the anteclockwise ring road - that bus takes about two hours to circumnavigate BRUM

I have always liked the sculptural concrete of this junction

the steps go down to the middle four lanes of the road past BHX airport to Coventry and London

I am on the middle level and above me is a gigantic roundabout for local traffic







smaller office buildings are getting converted into appartments, but these?











autumn berries on the mountain ash tree

my father planted two rowan trees at 230 Widney Lan, Solihull
but they died after about 35 years.



Out of view to my right is STAPLES
Staples South Yardley
1507 Coventry Road
South Yardley,
Birmingham
B25 8LW





the next bus stop by this police station



It has a bus approaching board


which did not list the little white bus, which rattles along about 5 minutes in front of the competition.


on aboard the little white bus

MobTime Cell Phone Manager - thank you

So my trusty T610 is still the only phone I can use for this blog

picture number 4 is viewable in the phone but not downloadable

MobTime Cell Phone Manager from MobTime INC - provides mobile phone software, SyncML and TCP/IP/IrDA stack.

Helped me get blogging again

So far it is defeated by the other phone like Sony's own software.
Sony Ericsson PC Suite 1.7.10
K608i - Imaging and messaging - 3G mobile services - fast and effective - Multitasking - surf and send while you talk - - Sony Ericsson

morning beer - Denmark 4 England 1

I went for an early morning walk out from Brumleby behind the Danish National Stadium, Parken in Copenhagen.

And this blue hose is pumping beer.



And the english football team are pretending that they never were here.

the tanker is by entrance C7

the gantry is entrance C8 on the first floor for VIPs

Denmark scored three goals in seven second-half minutes as England were humiliated in their final game before their World Cup qualifier in Wales.

All things considered the match - England's worst defeat since losing to Wales in May 1980 - turned into everything Sven-Goran Eriksson did not want ahead of the crunch qualifier in Cardiff. BBC

Welcome To MobTime Cell Phone Manager

Welcome To MobTime Cell Phone Manager: "MobTime Cell Phone Manager. Mobtime Cell Phone Manager is a powerful software with which you can manage your mobile phone simply and easily by computer."

is this the answer to my problems?
only 3 cows on two cows tho?

t-six-ten: mobile photography magazine

community

t-six-ten: mobile photography magazine and community

An experimental global community of mobile phone photographers from around the world

From May – December 2003 over 10,000 "images scouts" participated in five photographic challenges.

The challenges have now stopped, but the images are here to stay

Check out some of the crazy, beautiful and weird photos submitted
o all our image scouts – well done and thank you!

.

Want to know more?
Copyright 2003 Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB. All rights reserved. Contact us | Legal

Gauguin viewing Gauguin

The eight exceptional Gauguins in the Ordrupgaard Collection were joined by this living descendant and you can see the master's hair and hands and more . . . in his g g g g daughter.

Gauguin og impressionismen
31. august - 20. november 2005

special exhibition with the Kimbell Art Museum in Texas.
malerier, skulpturer og keramik, 1875-1887


this level eyed gaze is typical of painters in their self portraits.


(from my email)





The new Ordrupgaard Extension building by Zaha Hadid, an Iraqi born British citizen, is now open.








the fine tapered fingers















rotated 90 degrees left





















this is a mirror image and painted as seen

Paul Gauguin Self-Portrait
follow the link to more about this painting








you can see the painter was right handed
I was tempted to mirror this detail























ColomboPashkus - Fotos Film&Arts and 3. CÓDIGOS DE SIGNIFICACIÓN and Kimbell Art Museum
thanks for photos which are copyright their owners

June 18 - September 8, 2002

The Age of Impressionism: European Painting from the Ordrupgaard Collection, Copenhagen


Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York, NY This exhibition will present some 80 superb paintings - by French artists Degas, Gauguin, Monet, Pissarro, and Sisley, as well as several important Danish artists - from the renowned Ordrupgaard Collection, located just outside of Copenhagen.





a harmonium

On HOLD

A saturday in July Copenhagen by Vesterport station

getting the double bass to the jazz festival gig

by tricycle made in Christiania

and

Christiania Bikes UK - homepage








I telephoned the Sony Denmark call centre

got put on hold speak to an engineer
after a fruitless conversation on level one

So took more photos yesterday two shopping malls and buses
but can't upload them YET

Enterpol Photo Gallery

Enterpol


HC Ørsted Værket

the big power station in Copenhagen

Epfoto Photo Gallery

What is 3GP ?

I have one saved video to play with

How to convert 3GP to AVI ?: "
What is 3G?

3G stands for third generation, a generic wireless industry term for high-speed mobile data delivery over cellular networks. 3G networks allow users to send and receive bandwidth-intensive information such as video, video conferencing, high quality audio and web data on-demand, virtually anytime and anyplace.

What is 3GP?

3GP - is the new mobile phone video file format.
3GPP, 3GPP2 are the new worldwide standard for the creation, delivery and playback of multimedia over 3rd generation, high-speed wireless networks. Defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project and 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 respectively, these standards seek to provide uniform delivery of rich multimedia over newly evolved, broadband mobile networks (3rd generation networks) to the latest multimedia-enabled wireless devices. Tailored to the unique requirements of mobile devices, 3GPP and 3GPP2 take advantage of MPEG-4, the standard for delivery of video and audio over the Internet.

Extensions:
.3gp 3GPP standard, GSM Network, Video: MPEG-4, H.263, Audio: AAC, AMR
.3g2 3GPP2 standard, CDMA2000 Network, Video: MPEG-4, H.263, Audio: AAC, AMR, QCELP."


How to convert .3GP movies, taken with mobile phone, into .AVI ?

Convert 3gp to avi with QuickTime Alternative OR Zwei-Stein Converter on TUCOWS

www.FOURCC.org - Video Codecs and Pixel Formats

"CAPI_Worker Module" - is buggy

"CAPI_Worker Module" - Google Search
Even after reinstalling the Sony Desktop Suite this module keeps failing
"sorry has to close"

so from today I cannot download any more pictures from the camera until it is fixed

the next day

I speculate that it is because there is more than 32 pictures?

anyway I have other digital sources an older phone, a scanner, a video camcorder, and at least 50 delayed blog pics from Denmark - so normal service WILL continue

I have emailed Sony and got a case number
and I received excellent help last time so watch this space !!!

grey sunday morning

I am holding the phone-cam high over my head.

The computer monitor is still under the tea towel I use as a dust cover
back in 1996 we wanted tailored covers for our Macintosh SE FDHDs

it still works too


In the right hand window you can see the busstop from this bog Friday 2 20 to 3 20 pm and an email from Copenhagen


This shows the route I took turning left out of our front door

and passing on my left


this corner of our garden














then across this lawn by the bus stop
walking from right to left
down the path with the brown fence



I see my neighbours ae still in bed
about 8:00 am
I slept long after watching Joe Calzaghe boxing from Cardiff on TV








I enter this picture from the right
along the edge of the carpark
and turn left just before the white van towards the doctors.












this is from my kitchen window
I walked to the big tree in the top left corner

the road is Crabtree Drive

the site of Roundmead
yes that was the demolished old peoples home.
now
Bosworth Medical Centre,
16 Crabtree Drive,
Birmingham
West Midlands B37 5BU

http://www.old-maps.co.uk/
1. (416880,286890) WARWICKSHIRE

I meant http://www.streetmap.co.uk/

Use streetmap X=416883 Y=286894
to link to this map. no footpaths though


I like this photo better
the long shadows of the tower blocks show it was taken at about 600pm gmt
Roundmead is clearly visible (click on the tiny camera icon)
Location: United Kingdom Grid ref: SP170870
Postcode district: B37 5BX
(map centre) X: 417000m Y: 287000m
Lat: 52:28:50N (52.4807) Lon: 1:45:04W (-1.7511)

and this is what I call my machine park

in my kitchen

3 toasters, 2 microwaves,

1 sandwich toaster, 1 breadmaker,

1 salad centrifuge, 1 balance

the big clock is because I am short sighted

fridgefreezer

Friday morning

What I saw from my bedside













you can see this is morning at about 5:30am
because of the brighter reflection under the clouds,
and on the very high ice crystals from the sun below the horizon.





I am experimenting with a different composition.

I could see a lot more in the dark bits but the idea of this blog is only to post unretouched photographs - snapshots -


I promise this will be the last food blog
here - I will put them over in my bloog
in future along with my weight, mw-ville stuff and links to other peoples blogs.


The raw onion is perfectly paletable wrapped in lettuce, I usually keep at least four kinds of vinegar and two of the finest olive oil.

I need cider vinegar, and english malt vinegar, and as my yeoman ancesters have drunk home-made cider since before our family history began it seems I have inherited that taste.


On a sunny day the light is too strong so I use pieces of old boxes as sun screens.

You can see them from outside in the second snap of the blog below




at the Oval
the problem of cricket is all that waiting abou, which bored me to death as a child during compulsory schhool sport three times a week.

Anyway I had no talent for that game - or any other ball game.

So I did not watch much, except when rained off
the commentater who talked about the industrial cameras hidden in the fibreglass stumps was much more interesting than the game.

I know I can see the TV schedules perfectly well on line but I enjoy reading the Radio Times more, so that is the only newspaper or weekly I ever buy regularly.

Coffee after lunch as usual.



Football
I enjoyed watching England lose to Ireland, and to Denmark, because I lived in Belfast for 3 years and Denmark for 25 years and I am eleventh sixteenths of welsh descent anyway.

So a WIN WIN !

Friday 2 20 to 3 20 pm and an email from Copenhagen

from my email:-
How was your check-up with your doctor?
Do you get out one hour every day?

so I thought that I had better make the effort - and this blog is the result

How much have you lost now?
I am very impressed that you can do this!!!!!

When this bus came by it seemed HUGE.

the bus is four stops from the branch library and five from the shopping centre.




Turning 180 degrees on the same spot and looking towards the eastern facade of Merton House.

Count four floors down to the seventh
and from the left :_
4 windows to the enclosed balcony of a two room flat.
3 windows to a bedroom,

1 slatted window to the rubbish chute
1 window to the hallway with lift and stairs, and the lighter dot is a safety light on at all times.

3 windows to my daughter's bedroom
3 windows to my bedroom with the cardboard sunscreens
( in fact I use it as a bed sitting room which saves heat in the winter)
4 windows to my balcony with the garden seat,
in front of the living room used for temporary storage.


The northern side of Merton House
to find my kitchen window count down four floors and it is to the left.

The two black dots are ventilation to a cupboard in a kitchen unit which has been replaced, also by my refigerator, and now is merely a drafty corner.

The second doctor's surgery on this site is being demolished after about thirty years use.



Outside Bosworth Medical Centre, which is the third surgery to be in use here, I met my own excellent doctor, Dr William John Phillips MBChB who qualified in Birmingham in 1971 and joined the practice in 1974.

He showed me his daughter somewhere on this website
Voltigieren pur - Willkommen auf der Homepage von Anja und Sylvie Barwig about vaulting horses and their riders, and he said that when he got home he had to exercise their horse that day.


At my 3:00 pm appointment
I asked to be tested for gout. (Bloog topic)



Emerging from the medical centre I turned right and entered the car-free zone

The benefits of the policy of selling these houses to tennants can be seen at once.




That is the ninth and tenth floors of the north-west corner of Merton House behind the row of houses.









The corner of the next row of houses















Typical bedding plants used in municipal parks too in England
















A small fuschia enjoys a warm corner,
and the hydrangea which flowers pink or red on acid soil and blue on alkaline soils, is a traditional plant by the front doors of older cottages in the villages.
later from my email
Not quite like that. My Readers Digest garden book of flowers says:Blue varieties do not thrive on alkaline soils, pink varieties should have limestone added to preserve pink colours





I would name this dog SPOT
He was friendly at first but begin to bark when I held the camera over him.
So this is from a safe distance.






The next open space
with a badly made panorama
The single floor bungalows to the right are for old people




After walking diagonally across the grass and looking back 180 degrees. I can see this spot from my kitchen.




Lots of hips on this semi wild rose bush










Time to go home from school with shiny new uniforms less than a week old.

There are football fields about 500 yards away near the swimming pool.



retracing my steps.





I went to the little shop after this, and got a Lucky Dip for EuroMillions - European Lotto draw results from the French, Spanish, and UK lotto online and three numbers 9 September 2005 odds 39 to 1 and 1074223 WINNERS! get £7.20 each on £1.50 TICKET
next Friday 16 September 2005 we all are looking at £50,000,000
three numbers in Lotto Wednesday 7 September 2005 gave £10
note PlayEuromillions.com and Play UK Internet are neither associated with The National Lottery or endorsed by Camelot Plc or the National Lottery Commission SUCKER BAIT





Not all the gardens are so coiffeured, but this wild place has a certain charm with lots of places for small birds to nest.

I am surprised by the big fuchsia to the left
they grow wild in the hedges of Ireland,
where the winters are very mild because of the warmth from the gulf stream.

Fuschias are usually grown as pot plants in the midlands and so there must be an excellent microclimate here.


The entrance has been upgraded over the last five years, new steel door and doorframe, a good door telephone system and a tv monitor.


From left on the first floor
there are three windows to each bedroom and two for the hallways and landings
3 room flats to the left and 2 room flats to the right, all with kitchen, bathroom and seperate toilet.

The ground floor was the first doctors surgery, and is now a doorman's cubicle and a service area.

thursday morning

The mist is evaporating as the air warms up.
about 7:30am summer time
I was squinting into the sun
when I took this and it has turned out much better than I expected.

note the long shadows of the bus stop
showing the low sun and the time of day by the angle like a sundial



Seen from the hallway, this is the door into the living room, with the kitchen to the left, and I really enjoy the design of the partion which is so typical of sixties architecture and made of glass to let some light into the windowless corridor.

The green felt notice board is to hide the junk and boxes. It is one of four I purchased as a wannabe novelist to use as story boards.

The picture is a poster of a Loire castle purchase by my mother as a souvenir.

My problems started when my mother changed her will from her hospital bed one month before she died, which meant the family home since about 1938 had to be sold.

At the moment of her death I, legally speaking, became a squatter in the house in which I grew up, so when the executors wrote me a letter asking me to leave, I took it to Solihull Council Housng Department and after a short wait was offered this three bedroom flat - the third room is so my daughter can stay with her father.







Our home was full of treasures and old papers, both my own and my mothers and I could not cope with clearing out, so I had all the "valueless" things boxed up and brought here to be sorted out later - 5 years on chaos grows and sorting is delayed.

The panorama shows a titanic style cabin trunk last used by my aunt Hilda Mary Watkins to flee the russian revolution - she had been a governess in St Petersburg.

It is rotten after 50 years in a garage, and the basket needs a new base, but then it will be great for storing linen in.

I put my glasses down to see the view finder better,
my left eye is extremely short sighted, asigmatic too, so I can use it close up to examine small things where others need to use a magnifying glass - the empty box contained the five year old unused Compaq MV720 monitor that right now is connected to my black screened old Sony Viao laptop

Like a miner to get to the monitor I had to excavate a corridor into the boxes because last on means first off and it took two sessions of about 1½ hours to get it out.

The other computers were loaded last into the removal van and because I was with a second van placing the antiques into storarage for my oldest daughter, I was delayed getting here to supervise the unloading and placing of furniture.




I wanted to make a vertical panorama showing the passage into my stuff

oops you have to go left to right

the blue carpet was left over from when a flat was done up and furnished for some refugees from Iraq

It caused resentment that they were given more than the locals - including a washing machine - so I believe they were harassed and finally left here in fear.

The boxes at the back contain "valueless" books - not collectable first editons -
and the black bags contain thousands of letters, or linen, or clothes nd hats.

The like of these letters will not be seen again, letter writng was diminished by the invention of the telephone and has almost been extinguished and replaced by emailing - if these can survive another fifty years they will become a valued archive of the twentieth century - along with the bank statements for long emptied accounts and other "treasures".



MAKE DO AND MEND - the deck chair needs repainting and new canvas, and then it will be more attractive than any plastic garden furniture.















NEW? very cheap made in the third world but it has no story to tell.

misty mornings

I woke up much too early
at about 4:00 am before the first buses








many misty mornings wiull be "burned off" and become sunny days

the double decker at the bus stop is going in to Birmingham city centre




The white bus is cheapest and friendliest -
no owners name on the side - possibly asians?

and often has a charming driver from the caribbean community
Red, white and blue is a patriotic if no brain colour combination.

There are about 50 operators of registered local bus services in the West Midlands says Centro

and these two buses' operator is Travel West Midlands


The yellow job is operated by Pete's Travel

Centro is the corporate name of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive responsible for promoting and developing public transport across the West Midlands metropolitan area.

The very old Compaq monitor seen in the other blog - by the excellent double glazed windows added when these appartments were modernized



Every day I have the view above to the left of my modest work station

so these snaps were taken sitting down.

fast food for lunch again

the rice to be steamed is in the oval plastic dish to the left,
I control the quantity (less than half a cup of dry rice) by the home made measure cut down from a green plastic throw away bottle.

The two very large plastic jars came from the supermarket full of basmati rice.

In the one the right is rolled oats for breakfast (I add bran flakes or muesli to make variations) andin the one to the left rice enough for 5 or 6 portions.

the steamer base is prefilled with sufficient water

Ingredients vary according to season - today cans of tuna and english style baked beans and four vegetables
what I call US student food (as seen on internet recipes)






oops
I placed the rice dish too close to the rounded edge of the work top, it fell off and had to sweep it up.

I think rounded edge work tops are potentially very dangerous in kitchens and could lead to serious scaldings. BAD DESIGN

the contents of the cans poured over the rice (after it had been covered with water) and the chopped onion and the whole carrot as the top layer






full steam ahead for 30 minutes
but it needed about 10 minutes more















I had cooked enough for two people,
so I served half of it up now and had the rest in the evening.








I often watch Bargain Hunt on BBC TV when I have lunch

I took a long time to get used to Tim Wonnacott but behind the silly mannerisms there is a vast knowledge and a quick mind.

I still miss David Dickinson

The bone handled pen knife is from the 1890ies, and was very desirable in my boyhood in 1945,
when the gadget for getting stones out of horses hooves could still be useful.
.

and lastly that day

Four or five kinds of tea keep me going thoughout the day. German green tea with vanilla from Lidl was not to my taste but was tolerable with milk
I use strictly tea bags, but pour the still boiling water through them and never soak the bags in a pot which mostly adds tannic acid
I cannot afford the Twinings lapsong suchong just now, but it is my favourite afternoon tea at 4:00 pm.

Today I will have russian tea with a slice of lemon instead.

Looking west at the nineteen-sixties new town built for Birmingham overspill.
A lovely evening but the gamut of the camera did not do justice to the delicate salmon pink on the underside of the clouds from the setting sun behind me

Pass Christian, MS House Before/After on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Pass Christian, MS House Before/After on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

lunch today

Sunday
fresh green cabbage sliced
dressing of best olive oil and french red wine vinegar
a carrot, a tomato, two slices of danish rye bread from NETTO in Copenhagen
a glass of tap water by pipeline from the welsh mountains

In the chinese rice bowl:-
chopped up cauliflower florets
half a tin (can) of wild salmon from Alaska
a whole chopped onion
dressing of best olive oil and french red wine vinegar - mostly vineger

under the table not a dog to lick up the crumbs
but a Black & Decker Classic Dustbuster HC 10

Then I continued with a pint glass of coffee and watched ITV1


The Official Formula 1 Website:

"McLaren escape to victory in Italy

Alonso closes on title as tyre woes hit Raikkonen

"That," Juan Pablo Montoya admitted, "was some race." And indeed the Italian Grand Prix was, even though for only the third time in Formula One history all of the starters made it to the finish."

1024 x 819 if clicked

Hullo World

at about 530 am on September 1st 2005
time to get up -no alarm clock

view from by my bed




a panoramic view
sunrise still slightly north of due east

looking down and slightly right to the bus stop on Bosworth Drive







about an hour later after doing some email and opening my kitchen window for fresh air


on the seventh floor and looking at the new medical centre












breakfast is ready
multi vitamin pill from Boots
from my danish heart specialist
diuretic with 573mg potassium chloride
Ramopril 5mg
ACE inhibition
asperin75mg
half a pint of water
rolled oats
skimmed milk

two pints of tea afterwards
(made by pouring boiling water through the 3 or 4 tea bags in the strainer)








I sit by the window on the hundred year old chair from my granny's kitchen at Usk


cushion from IKEA








after three hours my blood sugar has sunk and I feel tired almost faint, so I take a snack - a small fruit - a nectarine left out of the fridge for a couple of days to ripen - perfection sweet and juicy







sitting at my keyboard - see the nectarine in the left hand lower corner

click to enlarge on the monitor Family Tree Maker in the front window, the laptop with the dead screen after 5 years, news on the tv, open door to the hall, trousers hanging on the door, yellow IKEA sheets on the bed, a red T shirt



time for coffee
cheapest machine from ARGOS
wire mesh filter (no papers)
spice rack from ARGOS
diet food needs to taste good and varied

skim milk
coffee from LIDL
First Class
100% Arabica blended


drinking plenty of fluids when dieting helps avoid that nasty taste in your mouth and keeps the body working well



at the kitchen window again
1024 x 268 pixels if you click for full screen
3 snaps but the overlaps are not good







after two or three hours more
lunch 710 x 568 pixels
a big lump of rye bread or anything with 7% fibre
no butter or margerine but about two or three teaspons of low fat cottage cheese

half a raw onion sliced
carrot
tomato
iceberg lettuce

first blog with my Sony Ericsson K600i

K600i -Specifications - UMTS - FM Radio - Mobile phone - Sony Ericsson
The camera has 1.3 megapixels
focal lengh of 4.85 mm giving f 2.8 aperture

I tried using a binocular as a long lens and it worked
so expect more experiments here soon


full zoom
note the long shadows
at about 7:00 am



the posh new medical centre is open
I call it the Doctors' Palace



looking east against the sunlight
our transformers
and the well barbered shrubs in the garden

panorama by mistake

I made this by mistake when I was
experimenting with the new features
view straight down out of my kitchen window
looking left due west at Balliol House,
another 10 floor home of the same design

looking north
no not the hurricane they are demolishing the old medical centre to make a new car park CLICK the IMAGE to see it fullsize