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I’ve opened an account.
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Bluesky Thinking
Month: November 2024
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.
