Deer meโ€ฆ

What are your favourite animals?

Iโ€™m not a fan of keeping pets

Prefer my animals free.

If I had to choose one

Perhaps itโ€™s deer for me.


The great stag is magnificent

With his imposing horns.

While it is the sweetest sight

To see a baby fawn.

Itโ€™s an awesome site to see

Two deer locking horns.

Or catch a site of several score

As they flock across a road.


Weโ€™re lucky that around us

Thereโ€™s many a great Deer Park

The Great Park near at Windsor,

Richmond, Bushy Parks

Or else in the New Forest

Which isnโ€™t very far.


The Parks were made for hunting

Where Royalty chased the deer

So deer have shaped the landscape

The countryside round here.

It cheers me up to see them.

Although they must be managed

They live in safety now.

A rugged coastal path.

Beach or mountains? Which do you prefer? Why?

Mountainโ€™s are inspiring

With panoramic views.

Iโ€™m up for scenic cable cars

But not that keen to ski.


I will not dangle from a rope

Or freeze too happily

So have to say that all in all

The mountains arenโ€™t for me.


Iโ€™m more a fan of beaches

But can only take so much

The sun and sea relaxing

But I have to take a book.


Sometimes itโ€™s just perfect

Soaking up the sun.

I can be a beach bum

Every now and then.


But I am not a swimmer

And I donโ€™t go in the sea.

I love the sounds and watching waves

But donโ€™t go in the sea.


And so the rugged coastal path

Is where Iโ€™d rather be.

With all the sounds of wind and waves

But changing scenery.


My life will not be threatened

Itโ€™s not a mountain side

I am up and active

Yet still beside the sea.

Bluesky Thinking

Iโ€™m a Twitter quitter

Iโ€™ve had enough of X

Iโ€™m not a fan of hate speach

And I donโ€™t like Elon Musk.


I am now on Bluesky.

Iโ€™ve opened an account.

If youโ€™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 familyโ€™s grown

Theyโ€™ve fled the nest

So when they are at home

Well that will be a special feast

Weโ€™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.


Chickenโ€™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

Weโ€™ll serve them piping hot.


Of course thereโ€™s roast potatoes

And plenty of parsnips too.

Our special favourite roasted squash

And then thereโ€™s green veg too.


Thereโ€™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

Thereโ€™s pudding still to come.

It likely be a crumble

With soft fruit that we have grown.


So roast will be the standby

But thereโ€™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 sheโ€™ll make others too.


Weโ€™ll usually have a meat dish

And sheโ€™ll add a veg one too.

Served with rice and chapatis perhaps

Or sometimes weโ€™ll have naan.


Her special Dal Makhani

Indian friends say is good.

Sheโ€™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 weโ€™ve grown.


And now to make a third choice

My wifeโ€™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 weโ€™ll finish this off

With home made apple pie.

Of course we grow the apples.

As youโ€™d expect Iโ€™d say.


Charles Dickens

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

Today Iโ€™ll say Charles Dickens

This question comes around!

A writer and campaigner

An interesting man.


Such a cast of characters

Weโ€™ve learned to know and love.

The very word Dickensian

Will conjure them all up.


Himself a great performer

Heโ€™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 peopleโ€™s door.


And then of course thereโ€™s Christmas

Traditions heโ€™d invent.

The best bits of the season

Are largely down to him.


He certainly wasnโ€™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 gutโ€ฆ

Do you trust your instincts?

Do I trust my instincts?

I guess I often do.

Too often Iโ€™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.


Weโ€™re guided by our instincts

By what weโ€™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 thatโ€™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 weโ€™re cheating autumn

The way the sun hangs on.


The days are getting shorter

Theyโ€™re precious every one.

The endless days of June are gone.

Weโ€™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.

Thereโ€™s a sense of new beginnings

And young lives moving on.


But itโ€™s a time of holiday

For people with no kids.

Holidays get cheaper

And they can go away.


Thereโ€™s still the sounds of cricket

The click of ball on wood

But rugbyโ€™s coming back again

And footballโ€™s just begun.


Hope in the heart of all the fans.

Perhaps this is the one?

Itโ€™s later in the season

That the disappointments come.


Itโ€™s a time for picking

We harvest what weโ€™ve grown.

The runner beans are slowing down

At last weโ€™re keeping up.


Weโ€™re awash with apples.

Weโ€™ve so much fruit and veg.

See the price of Waitrose squash?

Weโ€™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.


Autumnโ€™s nearly with us

Itโ€™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 canโ€™t say you saw London unless youโ€™ve been โ€˜Up Westโ€˜.

What is your favorite place to go in your city?

I donโ€™t live in a city.

Though London is quite near

And now weโ€™re on their tube map

So London it will be.


The thing to say bout London

Is itโ€™s huge and such a sprawl

They say that if youโ€™re tired of it

Youโ€™re tired of life itself.


So many things to see there

So many things to do

It really isnโ€™t sensible

To even try and choose.


Perhaps youโ€™ll go to Islington

Or stroll on Hampstead Heath.

Many love North London best

Where Arsenal play and Spurs.


Perhaps youโ€™ll like South London

Where Greenwich is in such.

Or maybe youโ€™ll like Bexley

Or Croydon is your place?


Or maybe youโ€™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 canโ€™t say you saw London

Unless youโ€™ve been โ€˜Up Westโ€™

History, Entertainment,

Restaurants and Shops.


Everything youโ€™d want to see

Is there in the West End.

Come now for the Christmas lights.

Theyโ€™re great in Regentโ€™s Street.


I think perhaps a place to start

Would be Trafalger Square.

Nelson on his column,

activity below

And thereโ€™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

Itโ€™s not too far to go.


There is so much happening.

You mustnโ€™t mind the crowds!

I wouldnโ€™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

Thatโ€™s just who I am.

Itโ€™ll take you time to know me.

Iโ€™m naturally quite quiet.


As for first impressions

Itโ€™s hard enough for me

To summon from my bashful brain

Something I can say.


I hope that you will like me

That you wonโ€™t find me rude

But sadly conversation

Is something I find hard.


I have a sense of humour

Iโ€™d like to make you laugh

But Iโ€™ll never be the โ€˜life and soulโ€˜

My humour is quite dry.


Iโ€™m thinking โ€˜get me through this

And out the other sideโ€˜.

Unless I know you very well

I wonโ€™t have much to say.


So clearly first impressions

Are not much on my mind.

Iโ€™m thinking, โ€˜Do the business

And just get on your way.โ€™

The Poisonwood Bible

What book are you reading right now?

Just read the Poisonwood Bible

Itโ€™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.


Itโ€™s narrated by four daughters

And his long suffering wife.

How they come to terms with things

Or mostly how they donโ€™t.


The book has funny moments

Though mostly weโ€™re appalled.

The minister says the children

Have to be baptised.

He wants them in the river

Thatโ€™s full of crocodiles.


Itโ€™s very cleverly handled

Five different points of view.

The Womenโ€™s Prize for fiction

A really excellent read.