Month: November 2024

Bluesky Thinking

I’m a Twitter quitter

I’ve had enough of X

I’m not a fan of hate speach

And I don’t like Elon Musk.

I am now on Bluesky.

I’ve opened an account.

If you’d like to follow me

Suggest you look it up.

@andrewag.bluesky.social

We like to feed the family with food that we have grown.

What are your family’s top 3 favourite meals?

Our family’s grown

They’ve fled the nest

So when they are at home

Well that will be a special feast

We’ll pull out all the stops.

The stand out choice will be a roast

With all our home grown veg.

Beef perhaps the favourite

But could be pork or lamb.

Chicken’s not so special

We have it all the time.

Turkey is for Christmas

It can be any meat.

But starting are the vegetables

Because we grow a lot.

The plates will all be groaning

We’ll serve them piping hot.

Of course there’s roast potatoes

And plenty of parsnips too.

Our special favourite roasted squash

And then there’s green veg too.

There’s runner beans in season

And chard or maybe kale

Sometimes it is cabbage

Or maybe cauliflower.

Of course it all needs gravy

And appropriate sauce.

Proper English mustard

Or perhaps Horse Radish sauce.

That is just the starters

There’s pudding still to come.

It likely be a crumble

With soft fruit that we have grown.

So roast will be the standby

But there’s other favourites too.

My wife has lived in India

And can cook a curry well.

We have all the spices

And my wife knows what to do.

A favourite is Jalfrezi

But she’ll make others too.

We’ll usually have a meat dish

And she’ll add a veg one too.

Served with rice and chapatis perhaps

Or sometimes we’ll have naan.

Her special Dal Makhani

Indian friends say is good.

She’d win an Indian husband

So they like to say.

For afters maybe ice cream

We have our own machine

And can knock out different flavours

Again with fruit we’ve grown.

And now to make a third choice

My wife’s own party piece

She likes to make Basque Chicken

And that is really nice.

Chicken and Chorrizzo

Baked with lots of rice

I once gave you the recipe

What is not to like?

Perhaps we’ll finish this off

With home made apple pie.

Of course we grow the apples.

As you’d expect I’d say.

Charles Dickens

If you could meet a historical figure, who would it be and why?

Today I’ll say Charles Dickens

This question comes around!

A writer and campaigner

An interesting man.

Such a cast of characters

We’ve learned to know and love.

The very word Dickensian

Will conjure them all up.

Himself a great performer

He’d do instalments live

Performing all the characters.

Would he do that for me?

A writer and campaigner

He championed the poor.

The misery of the workhouse

He laid at people’s door.

And then of course there’s Christmas

Traditions he’d invent.

The best bits of the season

Are largely down to him.

He certainly wasn’t flawless

We know he had his faults.

But would I like to meet him?

Most certainly of course.

In the end you trust your gut…

Do you trust your instincts?

Do I trust my instincts?

I guess I often do.

Too often I’m in auto drive

And scarcely think at all.

You have to make decisions.

We make them all the time.

If we overthink them

Will they get made at all.

We’re guided by our instincts

By what we’ve learned before

But in the end you trust your gut

You just get on and do.

Of course we get it wrong sometimes

And ought to stop and think

But mostly, each and every day

We just do what feels right.

For really big decisions

We should weigh all the facts

But knowing when to stop and think

Well that’s an instinct too.

Why I love September – that late summer sun.

What’s your favourite month of the year? Why?

I will choose late summer

With the chance of stolen sun.

It feels we’re cheating autumn

The way the sun hangs on.

The days are getting shorter

They’re precious every one.

The endless days of June are gone.

We’ll see the setting sun.

The trees have all their leaves still

But may be on the turn.

We sense the change of season.

We feel it in our bones.

The August hols are over.

The kids start back to school.

There’s a sense of new beginnings

And young lives moving on.

But it’s a time of holiday

For people with no kids.

Holidays get cheaper

And they can go away.

There’s still the sounds of cricket

The click of ball on wood

But rugby’s coming back again

And football’s just begun.

Hope in the heart of all the fans.

Perhaps this is the one?

It’s later in the season

That the disappointments come.

It’s a time for picking

We harvest what we’ve grown.

The runner beans are slowing down

At last we’re keeping up.

We’re awash with apples.

We’ve so much fruit and veg.

See the price of Waitrose squash?

We’re veggie millionaires.

The mood is generally wistful

As summer says goodbye

We try to make the most of it

And hope it will be dry.

Autumn’s nearly with us

It’s rituals soon begin

With Halloween and Guy Fawkes night

The nights all drawing in.

But for now September

And stolen Summer sun.

Not yet time for buttoned coats

While Summer lingers on.

You can’t say you saw London unless you’ve been ‘Up West‘.

What is your favorite place to go in your city?

I don’t live in a city.

Though London is quite near

And now we’re on their tube map

So London it will be.

The thing to say bout London

Is it’s huge and such a sprawl

They say that if you’re tired of it

You’re tired of life itself.

So many things to see there

So many things to do

It really isn’t sensible

To even try and choose.

Perhaps you’ll go to Islington

Or stroll on Hampstead Heath.

Many love North London best

Where Arsenal play and Spurs.

Perhaps you’ll like South London

Where Greenwich is in such.

Or maybe you’ll like Bexley

Or Croydon is your place?

Or maybe you’re a Cockney

And love the old East End?

Good place for a knees up

Or a plate of jellied eels.

You know that I love Richmond,

Kingston, Wimbledon too

But if you are a visitor

No doubt what you should do.

You can’t say you saw London

Unless you’ve been ‘Up West’

History, Entertainment,

Restaurants and Shops.

Everything you’d want to see

Is there in the West End.

Come now for the Christmas lights.

They’re great in Regent’s Street.

I think perhaps a place to start

Would be Trafalger Square.

Nelson on his column,

activity below

And there’s the National Gallery

Just across the road.

A short walk to the Palace

You just go down the Mall

And not far from the shopping

in famous Oxford Street.

Then complete your evening

By going to a show

Leicester Square, Theatre Land

It’s not too far to go.

There is so much happening.

You mustn’t mind the crowds!

I wouldn’t want that every day

But go there for the buzz.

Take me as you find me..

What’s the first impression you want to give people?

Take me as you find me

That’s just who I am.

It’ll take you time to know me.

I’m naturally quite quiet.

As for first impressions

It’s hard enough for me

To summon from my bashful brain

Something I can say.

I hope that you will like me

That you won’t find me rude

But sadly conversation

Is something I find hard.

I have a sense of humour

I’d like to make you laugh

But I’ll never be the ‘life and soul‘

My humour is quite dry.

I’m thinking ‘get me through this

And out the other side‘.

Unless I know you very well

I won’t have much to say.

So clearly first impressions

Are not much on my mind.

I’m thinking, ‘Do the business

And just get on your way.’

The Poisonwood Bible

What book are you reading right now?

Just read the Poisonwood Bible

It’s a terrific book.

Highly recommend it

You should take a look.

Missionaries in the Congo

When independence came.

An awful U.S. Baptist, totally arrogant

Who has no feel for Africa

To his eternal shame.

It’s narrated by four daughters

And his long suffering wife.

How they come to terms with things

Or mostly how they don’t.

The book has funny moments

Though mostly we’re appalled.

The minister says the children

Have to be baptised.

He wants them in the river

That’s full of crocodiles.

It’s very cleverly handled

Five different points of view.

The Women’s Prize for fiction

A really excellent read.

Richmond on the Thames

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I’ve been to many places

I’ve often lived abroad

But if I could choose

a special place

I’d live on Richmond Hill.

Property‘s expensive

Which makes it just a dream

But I have lived quite near to here

And know it very well.

Richmond can be stunning

It’s got some splendid views.

Yet it’s near to London

And all you can find there.

If you’ve seen Ted Lasso

Perhaps you’ll know the place?

It’s really nice on Richmond Green

Where you can take a stroll.

Or walk along the river

For yet more pleasant views

Or head back to the High Street

Where there are decent shops.

If you tire of townscape

Then head for Richmond Park

It’s eight miles round

Green rolling hills

And herds of roaming deer.

Just across the river

If you‘re into sport

The national rugby stadium

And Harlequins as well.

Harlequins my favourite team

I’d love to be near them

And all the pubs and restaurants

We’d have to visit them.

If you like to travel

Heathrow’s not too far

Be on a plane to anywhere

I couldn’t ask for more.

‘Where London meets the Countryside’

Is how they bill themselves.

I couldn’t ask for too much more

A splendid place to live.

A wedding ring for three days lost.

What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever found (and kept)?

Not all we have is ours to keep

Not all we seek is lost.

I had lost my wedding ring

And I was in distress.

The worst place I could lose it

On our allotment plot.

What was worse a bonfire

Burning lots of wood.

Must have pulled the ring right off

With my gardening glove.

The chances of me finding it

Really not a lot!

I poked around on that rough ground

But didn’t seem much hope

I guess it came too easily off

Because my hands were cold.

I did my best to find the thing

But there was not a chance.

Too many places I had been

Gathering up the wood.

So I went home to tell my wife

Who wasn’t pleased with me.

She should have been more angry

But I guess is used to me.

The ring was lost for three full days.

I thought it really gone.

We had given up on it

Were feeling quite forlorn.

But three days later we went back

To tidy up the fire

And raking up the ashes

Were amazed to find it there.

It had changed its character

Tempered in the fire.

But somehow it’s more precious

And I love it better now.

The gold looks slightly pitted

But I don’t mind at all.

For what was lost has now been found

Has character – is cool.

It feels to me a different ring

More special still to me.

Somehow it’s more magical.

A really special thing.