Today, mostly I have been a cyclist.
36.5 miles covered, time enjoyably spent with daughter and granddaughters. Went to the park with granddaughter number 1 while mummy took granddaughter number 2 swimming. Got my shopping done on the way home including mushrooms so a pigeon pie seems to be in the offing. Recipe will follow if it happens. I do like pigeon pie. Failed to stop and pick up roadkill on the way home, I am becoming lazy.

 Some poems come back to haunt me - how come they are the ones you find when you least want them?

I just spent an evening of maudlin self pity
with a bottle of vodka and litre of coke
 and the evening I wasted has taught me
a lot about me, about life, about love - it's a joke.

 I started the evening with a sense of achievement
I'd cleaned the whole house and lit a nice fire
I'd cooked me a dinner, a very nice dinner
and ate it alone by my very nice fire.

Then I poured me a small one and sipped it quite slowly
I felt quite relaxed as I sat by my fire,
 then I poured me another, why not have another?
There was only me there, just me and my fire.

 Then I searched my computer for an image I wanted
 and discovered an image I hoped I'd forgotten
the person I loved who made me complete
 but alas she is gone and I'm sitting alone
with my vodka and coke and my life is a joke.

My love doesn't love me and I am alone
and I'm maudlin and drunk and for all my desire
there only is me and my drink and the fire.

Yesterday, mostly I was a roofer and a reader.
We finished putting the roof on Rod's dog house this morning.
In the evening I found a book 48 Hours by J Jackson Bentley, a real page turner, so it was after two when I went to bed. If you like well written crime novels you will like this48 Hours.
I had just started reading it in my shed when my daughter phoned, she has decided we should go on a cycle ride next weekend and wants me to plan a 60-70 mile route that has two pubs in it and ends at a third. Rod arrived while I was on the phone and dropped four dead pigeons on the shed floor. He waved and left without speaking.
Pigeon breast pie.
First get someone to shoot some pigeons and give them to you.
1. Insert a sharp knife into the skin at the breast and slit. Tear back the skin to completely expose the breasts.
2. Cut off the breasts.
3. Slice the breasts and fry quickly with a chopped onion and a handful of mushrooms (I have large hands.
4. Add seasoning to suit your mood.
5. Make pastry - 6ozs flower and 3ozs butter and pinch of salt, rub together until breadcrumb consistency, add a splash water and mix.
6. Roll out and use half to line a pie dish.
7. Fill with the pigeon and mushroom mix.
8. Close the pie with the rest of the rolled pastry, paint lightly with milk, stab the top a half a dozen times.
9. Bake at 180 for thirty minutes.
10. Enjoy.

A poem.

"Your dead motherfucker" he said,
It made me quite sad
the way he referred to
the death of my dad.

Friday, 16 August 2013

This week I have been mostly ...

On Sunday evening Rod arrived with two dead rabbits and left after a couple of glasses of whiskey.
On Monday I was mostly a butcher. How to prepare rabbit.
1. Cut off the head.
2. Cut off the feet.
3. Insert the point of a sharp knife through the skin in the chest area and slit up a few inches.
4. Tear the skin up and apart, push first on foreleg through, then the other.
5. Free at the neck and pull down, stripping the skin until the pelt is off the hind legs.
Pull hard to finally separate the pelt from the body.
6. Slit the belly open from til to ribcage and remove the guts, lungs and heart.
7. Joint the carcass - two front legs with shoulders, two hind legs, ribcage with backbone, backbone to hips, hips to tail.
8. Put legs and back into a bag and put in the freezer.

Cooking (some of) the rabbit.
1. Put the ribcage and tail sections in a pot and cover with water. Put on the stove.
2. While it warms up chop an onion, two carrots, two potatoes and add to the pot.
3. Throw in a handful of lentils, a handful of pearl barley and some seasoning (salt, pepper, carribbean everyday seasoning, hot chile powder etc).
4. Bring to the boil and simmer for a half an hour or so while you read a book.
5. Lift out the rabbit sand leave to cool for a few minutes, then separate the meat from the bone and put the meat back in.
6. Bring to the boil again.
7 Eat.

On Tuesday morning I was mostly a pop singer, but in the afternoon I was mostly a roofer and labourer for Rod's shed/dog kennel.

On Wednesday I was mostly a cyclist, but after fifteen miles I had a puncture and became mostly a walker pushing a bike. After three miles I bought a new tire and inner tube and replaced the perished tire and tube.
After being a grandad for a couple of hours I became mostly a cyclist again and got home safely. I celebrated with three pints of Adnams Southwold Bitter at The Ship.

On Thursday I was mostly a grandad again but not a cyclist.

On Friday it rained so I am being mostly a blogger and website developer.
Listed on my website now are two short collection of poetry and two novels.


Friday, 9 August 2013
Today, mostly, I was shopping.

11.15 a.m. In the town of Spalding to get new glasses. Vision Express had the privilege. I sat beside a mature lady and we listened to a discussion about computers. The man didn’t use one, nor credit cards, so he had to leave the shop to go to the bank to withdraw more money because his new glasses were more expensive than he had expected.
“I use the computer,” she said to me. That’s how I got my new partner. Internet. My husband’s been dead six years. His wife five. Not a great love, but it’s nice to have someone around.”
I enjoy interesting conversations.