Feb 3rd	Started some major changes to the menu structures on the website.  The Physics section came first, and I have also finished the Astronomy and Solar System sections.  Gone are the "previous" and "next" arrows at the top left & right of each page for navigation between the main parts of each section.  We now have a menu to the left that automatically expands as you run your mouse down to give access to all the subsections of that part of the site, with the menu at the top of the screen for navigating between the main sections.  Let me know what you think, though there may be some disruption for the next several days until I get it all finished.
Jan 29th	Suffering my first cold since Spring of 2003, and really suffering!  Every symptom imaginable.  Oh well; it will pass soon.  Has allowed me to spend more time adding and changing the content here.  Quite a few new entries in the New York section of Vacations.  This covers mainly day trips, but still fun.
Jan 19th	I recently heard from my cousin Taki (Panayotis), who is the son of my late Aunt Maritza and Uncle George.  I have not seen him for nearly 30 years, so it is a real pleasure to be back in contact.  He has sent me many new and contemporary pictures of the family, and I am adding these into the Family section of the website.
Jan 11th	Made some substantial changes to the organization of the US parts of the Vacations section.  On the Vacations Introduction page, the US is separated by State to make things a little easier and less cluttered.  After that, each state has sections relating to the places we have visited.  Some of these places have multiple pages which, I hope, I have broken out logically.  Time and visitor comments will tell!
Jan 5th	A quiet but fun Christmas on our own this year.  Visited Deborah's Mother for New Year and had a good time.  Went to three good restaurants in upstate NY; the "Route 69 Steakhouse" in Whitesboro, "Estate at 169" at the Twin Ponds Golf Club in New York Mills, and a great brunch at the "American Hotel" out in Sharon Springs.  Agnes also bought me some delightful Christmas presents, including a half round of English Stilton cheese to which I added a very nice bottle of Port!  So New Year was a culinary delight, though I have put on a few of the pounds (or kilos) I lost before Christmas.  Extra exercise looms, plus a return to more moderate eating.
Dec 24th	Excepting a sudden storm, which is not in the forecast, looks as though we are set to have a very rare non-white Christmas this year!  Weather channel tells me the high is going to be 40ºF on Christmas day, with the possibility of a flurrie, and 45ºF on New Years day!  Hope that turns out to be accurate.  Finally, for those with reasonably broad minds, and a basic understanding of the science of thermodynamics, here is a joke from William.  Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas, and a happy and prosperous New Year.
Dec 17th	Had a few really enjoyable days out recently.  Visited the FDR house and Presidential Library in Hyde Park, NY.  Unfortunately, only the ground floor was open in the main house but we still had to pay $14 each to visit.  The docent we had was good fun and very knowledgeable so we still had a good time, and the library was very interesting.  Today, we visited the Wilderstein Historical Site, which had been the family home of the Suckley family from 1852 until Daisy Suckley died in 1991 just before her 100th birthday.  We both absolutely loved this house; it is large enough to be impressive, but small enough to envisage as a family home.  The house is being restored, as it had deteriorated quite badly, but most of the content and basic appearance is essentially as it was when Daisy lived in it.  Daisy was a good "friend" of FDR, and in fact gave him his beloved dog Fala.
Dec 13th	OK; the LHC rumors were substantially the product of the overactive imagination of the popular press!  The evidence was no where near the level of confidence needed to support the discovery of a new particle.  What it has done, however, is restrict further the energy levels at which the Higgs Boson COULD exist, and that is good science.
Dec 5th	Rumors abound that on December 13th CERN is going to announce that the LHC has uncovered signs of the Higgs Boson at a mass of around 125 GeV.  If you have no interest in science, that probably means nothing to you.  Otherwise, it is hugely exciting!  More information on the Wired Science website.
Dec 2nd	Very sad to hear about the death of a very old friend in the U.K.  John had been suffering from a particularly virulent form of cancer which had necessitated his having a hemipelvectomy, which is a drastic form of leg amputation that includes half the pelvis.  Unfortunately, the cancer returned and he lost the battle.  He was only 54, and one of the nicest people you could meet.

News, Views & Changes

About This Web Site

We started to build this web site in late October 2008, so it is nearly 3 years old.  I update it regularly, so do come back to see new content.  You can contact us at: contact@whillyard.com.  I designed the site for screen resolutions at least 1280 across as this seems to be a reasonable minimum these days.  If you have a narrower screen, for example 1,024 pixels, you will need to scroll horizontally, which is no fun, I'm afraid!  I built it using WYSIWYG Web Builder software. 

Wherever you see text like this, you can get additional information by hovering your mouse cursor on it.  All photographs & external links open in a new window, while most internal page links open in the same window. 

Feel free to link to this site, preferably to the home page, but please refer to the Terms of Use for important copyright information.  No hot-linking to images; if I find hot-linking to my images, I sometimes substitute very inappropriate alternatives!  Please report any problems to webmaster@whillyard.com.   The site is optimized for Firefox Versions 3 to 8, and is also tested on Google Chrome and Opera up to version 11.52.  There are issues with Opera only if you use the Opera Turbo feature, though the slide shows are rather jerky in their presentation.  If you must, it is also tested on Internet Explorer. 

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