Autumn Is Coming

Old Lady

Under shady branches

Knuckled and gnarled

Scabbed and twisting

Lie windfalls cradled softly

Amongst the dewy grass

Bruised, browning slowly

In the hazy sunshine

Sweet juices fermenting

Into heady cider

Intoxicating the sleepy wasps

And the blackbirds

Which feed upon the crop

Sipping the abundant nectar 

You lean slightly to one side

Like an old lady

Your trunk bent beneath the weight

Of twigs and leaves and fruits

Your aged limbs

Weathered, wind-buffeted

Your bark rough and leathery

Skin rotted and cankered

Your shape crooked and disfigured

Diseased, hard and broken

By the passing years 

Yet the sap must still rise within you

Each and every Spring

To produce abundant blossom

Pulling in the pollinators

To create a canopy-full

Fertile with fecund fruits

Of such acid sharpness 

In the twilight of your years

Your age is unimportant

You stand defiantly alone

Never part of any orchard

But fiercely rooted

Through every season

Crabbed in your corner of the garden

But still verdant, fruitful, useful

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2012

Beetroot, beetroot, beetroot

Recipe for: BEETROOT SOUP - BORSCHT

Ingredients: 

• 1 tblsp sunflower oil
• 1 onion, peeled & chopped
• 2 celery stalks, washed, trimmed & sliced
• 300g potatoes, peeled & diced
• 600g fresh beetroot, peeled & grated
• 1.5 litres vegetable stock
• 1 tblsp fresh dill, chopped
• Freshly ground salt & pepper

Method: 

1. heat the oil in a large, heavy pan
2. gently fry the onions, celery, potatoes & beetroot for 5 minutes, stirring constantly
3. add the stock, bring to the boil, then simmer for 35 minutes, or until the vegetables are completely soft & tender
4. remove from the heat & liquidise
5. stir in the dill, salt & pepper to taste & warm through

What else you need to know: 

1. serve with a swirl of soured cream & a sprig of dill
2. beware – beetroot juice stains everything it touches!

 

Disappointing Landmark

I went to see Hadrian's Wall, after many years of managing to never see it.  I think it was the trip to the Great Wall of China last year that prompted me to go and visit the heritage in my own back yard.  After driving for a couple of hours, we got to Housesteads Fort. I found it hard to disguise my disappointment. I'd expected to see the remnants of a substantial wall, but what's actually there suggests it was something much more modest.

Hadrian’s Wall

At last I could make it out

A narrow walkway

Rising from the grasping earth

Loose and crumbled stones

Tumbled from once good order

And straight alignment

Fallen randomly

Into the coarsest tussocks

Of grass and mossy ground 

Out here on the windswept moor

Miles from civilisation

Amongst ice and bitter cold

Lie lichen-covered blocks

In faint traceable patterns

Which snake and wind their way

Across the forbidding landscape 

Here long-abandoned evidence

Of ramparts, towers, turrets

Interrupts the regular line

And there a garrison fortress

Provided basic shelter

And some rough respite

Against adverse weather

And painted barbarians

Invading from the North 

But is this all there was?

So little sign these days

Of any forbidding Roman structure

But the merest thin grey line

Of no great height

Weaving through the frozen land

To be defended at all costs

By the toughest Legionnaires

At the very end of Empire

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2012

Have A Glass Of Cider With This.....

Recipe for: PORK with PAPRIKA & OLIVES 

Ingredients: 

·         500g diced pork (leg or shoulder)

·         Red onion – cut into thin wedges

·         2 garlic cloves, crushed

·         100g chorizo, cut into chunks

·         1 tsp smoked paprika

·         400g tin chopped tomatoes

·         300ml/ ½ pt chicken stock

·         400g can chickpeas, rinsed

·         100g green olives

·         Zest & juice of a lemon

·         Small bunch of parsley, chopped 

Method:

1.       Heat oven to 150c/ fan 130C/ gas 2

2.       In oven-proof casserole with lid, season pork, then brown (in batches) in a little oil over a high heat. Set aside.

3.       Add onion & garlic to oil, cooking till softened

4.       Add chorizo & paprika, cooking for another 2 minutes

5.       Add tomatoes, stock and the cubes of browned pork

6.       Stir well, bring up to a simmer, then cover with lid & place in oven

7.       Cook for 1 hour

8.       Stir in chick peas & olives.

9.       Cook for another 1 hour.

10.    Stir in lemon zest, juice & parsley just before serving. 

What else you need to know: 

1.       The sauce in this is REALLY tasty

2.       Goes really well with crusty bread & a glass of cider

 

The Old Lady In The Corner Of The Garden

Old Lady

Under shady branches

Knuckled and gnarled

Scabbed and twisting

Lie windfalls cradled softly

Amongst the dewy grass

Bruised, browning slowly

In the hazy sunshine

Sweet juices fermenting

Into heady cider

Intoxicating the sleepy wasps

And the blackbirds

Which feed upon the crop

Sipping the abundant nectar 

You lean slightly to one side

Like an old lady

Your trunk bent beneath the weight

Of twigs and leaves and fruits

Your aged limbs

Weathered, wind-buffeted

Your bark rough and leathery

Skin rotted and cankered

Your shape crooked and disfigured

Diseased, hard and broken

By the passing years 

Yet the sap must still rise within you

Each and every Spring

To produce abundant blossom

Pulling in the pollinators

To create a canopy-full

Fertile with fecund fruits

Of such acid sharpness 

In the twilight of your years

Your age is unimportant

You stand defiantly alone

Never part of any orchard

But fiercely rooted

Through every season

Crabbed in your corner of the garden

But still verdant, fruitful, useful

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2012

News From Bromham - Dateline Sunday 26th August 2012

Bulletin From Bromham: Dateline – 26^th August 2012

Here is our weekly round-up of events from Bromham:

·         Problems have emerged this week over the grading of farm-workers’ field-picking skills.  Subjects such as Baby Carrot and Sweetheart Cabbage have come in for particular criticism by some farmers, who have accused the Field Exams Council Ko-Operative (FECK) of applying different standards to tests undertaken in January to those taken in June.

·         It is with great regret that The Bulletin announces the death Neil Piglet, the first man from Bromham to set foot on the surface of Trowbridge in 1969, blazing a path for Bromham’s later exploration of outer Wiltshire.  His historic words of: “one small step for a Piglet, a giant leap forward for Bromham-kind” will be forever remembered.

·         Bromham’s Library has been over-run this last month by requests to borrow copies of the carrot bonk-buster Fifty Shades of Orange.  Librarians have had to order in extra copies after the lending section was inundated with requests from middle-aged farmers’ wives, and finding that existing copies were being returned smeared with mud, and very much the worse for wear.

·         For details of these and all other Bromham stories, don’t forget to listen to local radio station Carrot FM.

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2012

Beware The Sun......

Icarus About To Fall

Who would not wish to flee

From an unjust captivity

Sharing the pain of a father

Suffering Minos’ hard punishment

For his earlier sins?

And whose cautious warning

Reveals his fractious fear? 

And how may mere wax and feathers

Fashion human wings

That may lift this heavy body

Prising it from the clutching fingers

And heavy prisoning grip of Earth

To let it soar and glide

And fly towards Helios’ domain? 

How is it possible to climb

So far, so high, so clear

Into this acid-blue, cloudless sky

Feel the warmth upon ones back and limbs

After so many years

Of cold confinement

Down there in the dark

With dearest Daedelus? 

And why not tempt the gods

By reaching the height of eagles

Stretching ones sinews

Faced by the blinding glare

Of solar brightness

Whilst staring down towards the sea

To glimpse Paros, Delos

And Samos far below? 

How close might one fly

To the hot, burning disc

That gives us vital force

Before being forced to turn away

And avoid tumbling from the heavens

Falling headlong to a certain death

Perishing beneath the ocean spray?

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2012

Origami

Origami

I wonder at the trickery of it

Yet there is no attempt to deceive

Two dimensions

In one plane of being

The paper being plain in itself

The flattest sheet

Twisted round

Tucked and creased

Folded into shape

Its razor-sharp edges

Turned in on itself

And back inside again 

Flatness transposed

By force of skill

And gentle sorcery

Into lines and angles

Squares, triangles

And dodecahedrons

Living trapezoids

Giving strength and articulation

Suggesting shape and shadows

Buried deep within the paper 

A bird, a rabbit, a frog

Creatures which are not there

In any normal sense

Suddenly appear

And have life and depth

Their heads erect, alert

Sitting upon the hand of their creator

Between the dextrous fingers

Of the manipulator 

Held for a fleeting moment

For wonder and admiration

Before slowly allowed to unfold

Before my very eyes

Vanishing whence they came

Into an empty page of nothing

The faintest marks upon the paper

The only evidence

They ever existed

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2012

Sunflower

Sunflower

A slate-grey cloudy sky

Glowers from above

Hangs heavy on the morning

Low ceiling’d over daytime

Shading each dew-damped surface

With sombre tints of black and grey 

A palette washed of any colour

Provides no point of focus for the eye

But among the general wash

Of drab and dripping greenery

Rises one tall defiant stick

Huge leaves drooping sadly

Towards the sodden earth 

And almost proudly

Bears its over-loaded head

Faces up towards the light

And spreads one sudden smile

In a gash of vivid colour

A burst of golden yellow

Copyright Andy Fawthrop

Monkfish with chorizo, chickpeas & fennel

Recipe for: MONKFISH with CHORIZO, FENNEL & CHICKPEAS

Ingredients: 

·         250g – 500g monkfish tail, filleted from bone and cut into 8 – 12 pieces

·         50g plain flour, seasoned with salt & pepper

·         75g butter

·         Small head fennel, core removed, very thinly sliced

·         50g – 100g chorizo, cut into very thin slices, or very small dice

·         1 tin chickpeas, drained & rinsed

·         Dash of olive oil 

Method: 

1.       Roll the monkfish pieces in the seasoned flour to coat

2.       Melt the butter in a frying pan until it almost colours, then gently cook the monkfish pieces for three to five minutes (depending on size & thickness).  Ensure fish is cooked through, and nicely browned on outside.

3.       Remove fish from pan & keep warm in a dish for a few minutes

4.       Add olive oil to the butter in the pan, and sauté the fennel for a few minutes until softened

5.       Remove the fennel and keep warm in another dish

6.       Add the chorizo and cook for a few moments until the fat begins to run

7.       Add the drained chickpeas and warm through

8.       Return the fennel to the pan, and mix everything together

9.       Plate up by spreading the mixture onto two plates

10.    Serve the monkfish fillets on top. 

What else you need to know: 

1.       This is a really tasty combination, which works really well.

Twenty-Twelve (or Team GB - OMG!!)

Twenty-Twelve

So the Olympic party’s all over:

We all come back blinking into the light,

From wide-screen TV-sets in darkened  rooms,

Knowing that we delivered it right. 

There were the Moaning Minnies and gloomsters,

The doomsters who said it would surely fail,

But we got past the winning post all right:

We put in a sprint and we got to the rail. 

Expected to do well at British sports -

Like double synchronised groaning,

Advanced muttering about the weather,

And heavyweight contests of moaning. 

Or TV remote control juggling,

Dominoes, 400 metres’ queueing,

And long-distance women’s misery -

That’s what they thought we’d be doing. 

We piqued at ground-to-air-missiles,

We heard of the cock-ups at G4S,

We worried about security,

We thought it would be a bloody great mess. 

We lost the keys to Wembley stadium:

It looked bad, and we started to fear,

And the early signs weren’t too good,

When we mixed up North with South Korea. 

But then the starting pistol sounded:

An Opening Ceremony of hits,

With an international audience,

Wondering what the hell to make of the Brits. 

London buses and pastoral scenes,

Danny Boyle did it all quite proper.

Not so sure about Beckham in a speed-boat,

Or why the Queen jumped out of a chopper. 

But then it all started to happen -

The events just got longer and longer.

The greatest athletes of modern times,

Excelled - to be higher, faster, stronger. 

No – do not adjust your medals table:

Such great achievements were easy to see.

From personal bests to new World Records -

Unbelievable feats from Team GB!

Triathlon, heptathlon and marathon -

The crowds went crazy over it all.

With huge cheering, shouting and screaming -

Specially for ladies’ beach volleyball. 

Every day the medals kept rolling in,

Each a personal victory we’re told.

National anthems on the podiums -

The bronze, the silver and, of course, gold. 

The fastest man on Earth - Usain Bolt,

Double Olympic champions we saw:

Mo Farah, Ennis, Hoy and Pendleton,

Wiggins and Murray – we hold them in awe. 

And a Blade-Runner showed what he could do,

Under five Olympic golden rings.

Unbelievable!  Incredible!

Who ever saw such fantastic things? 

Now, as two hundred nations head for their homes,

A bit hung over, some not feeling too well,

We can wrap our flag around our bodies,

And wish adieu, auf wiedersehen, farewell. 

The sporting flame has been extinguished,

Sent to Rio, in four years’ time we’re told.

Now, as a nation, we ought to be proud:

We, the people, won that thirtieth gold!

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2012

Pondering Peacocks

This poem was written for a friend of mine, after she mentioned that her "first" thought in the morning when she woke up one day, was about peacocks.

Pondering Peacocks

Waking slowly from a drowsing sleep

As morning light intrudes itself

Creeping unbidden under eyelids

At the very edge of dawn

Still faint and frowsy

As the last lingering strands

Of dreams and rambling thoughts

Stretch out longer and longer

Until they gently snap

The final threads of contact

With night-time places

Which then recede and fade

Among the tangled bedclothes 

Intrusive worries for the day ahead

The grey, the mundane

The heavy, usual round

Of demanding tasks and dreary chores

The things that must be done

People that must be met

Appointments kept

And all the other things

Demanded by one’s daily life

Prompted by the relentless movement

Of digits of the bed-side clock 

But reluctant yet to make that start

And time being only relative

The sheets and pillows feel still warm

Clinging and making calming claim

Upon the tired, restless body 

The hour is yet but early

There is still a tiny chance

To conserve some precious energy

And preserve some mindful meanderings

To postpone the inevitable

And hold the last few moments

Of some happiness within

By thinking of better things

Floating into vivid colour

And pondering perhaps

Upon peacocks

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2012

News from Bromham - Dateline Sunday 19th August 2012

Bulletin From Bromham: Dateline – 19^th August 2012

Here is our weekly round-up of events from Bromham:

·         Bromham Parish Council have decided to give diplomatic asylum to Hugh Jarse, who is facing extradition proceedings to Seend to face serious charges of cabbage smuggling, and an unspecified sexual offence with a courgette.  He is resisting deportation on the grounds that he fears further extradition to Trowbridge.

·         Local layabout, Evan Piglet, has been castigated again by local people after he failed to reveal the whereabouts of the Bromham village sign, which he impetuously buried over thirty years ago in a drunken spree.  Despite several appeals to his better nature, Piglet has refused to co-operate.  It was hoped that he had revealed the location of the missing sign in a sealed letter to his brother, but hopes of this were dashed yesterday when it was pointed out that he can neither read nor write.

·         After a long summer during which absolutely nothing has been happening on the sporting scene, the West Wiltshire Germolene League kicked off yesterday.  Bromham Casuals began their campaign in traditional manner by going down 3-1 away at Heddington Hecklers, with star striker Dwayne Mooney, as usual, being sent off in the 30^th minute for ungentlemanly conduct.

·         For details of these and all other Bromham stories, don’t forget to listen to local radio station Carrot FM.

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2012

Just Think About The Losers.....

Coming Second

It’s the position to be avoided

Silver-medal placed

Runner-up

Second best

Almost a champion

No consolation to be derived

One step down upon the podium 

Holding the rictus smile of pleasure

Above the bitter tears of disappointment

And pent-up frustration

Whilst congratulating the winner

Who, on this occasion

Is clearly the better man

And, perhaps, for ever 

But, in the eyes of the world

He is the best of men

The joyful winner

True focus of attention

And he who gives the interviews

To the waiting press

Allowing the beaten loser

To quietly slope away

And reflect upon

What might have been

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2012

Sunflower

Sunflower

A slate-grey cloudy sky

Glowers from above

Hangs heavy on the morning

Low ceiling’d over daytime

Shading each dew-damped surface

With sombre tints of black and grey 

A palette washed of any colour

Provides no point of focus for the eye

But among the general wash

Of drab and dripping greenery

Rises one tall defiant stick

Huge leaves drooping sadly

Towards the sodden earth 

And almost proudly

Bears its over-loaded head

Faces up towards the light

And spreads one sudden smile

In a gash of vivid colour

A burst of golden yellow

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2012

Bread - Chive, Yoghurt & Oats

Recipe for: BREAD – Chive, Yoghurt & Oat Bloomer

Ingredients: 

·         350ml warm water

·         1 tsp fast action yeast

·         1 large bunch chives, finely chopped (or use spring onions, or onion)

·         200ml yoghurt

·         400g strong white bread flour

·         100g strong wholemeal flour

·         2tsp salt

·         Handful oats

·         Oil for kneading

Method: 

1.       Pour water into a large bowl

2.       Add yeast & chives & mix well

3.       Stir in yoghurt

4.       Add salt & both flours, mixing well

5.       Pull together into a single sticky ball

6.       Leave in the bowl, cover with a clean cloth & leave to stand for 10 minutes

7.       Lightly oil worktop & knead the dough gently for 10 seconds

8.       Return to bowl, cover & leave for a further 10 minutes

9.       Knead again for 10 seconds, return to bowl, cover & leave for 90 minutes, until risen by at least half

10.    Prepare two dinner plates: on one put two sheets of kitchen paper, wet with water.  On the other spread out a handful of oats

11.    Line a large oven tray with baking parchment

12.    Get the ball of dough & roll it on the wet plate to moisten the surface, then roll around in the oats until they stick all over, then place into the baking tray

13.    Cover with dry cloth & allow to rise again for about an hour

14.    Heat the oven to 220C/ fan 200C

15.    Using a serrated knife slash the top of the loaf diagonally five or six times

16.    Bake in the hot oven for 40 minutes until golden 

What else you need to know: 

1.       This looks complicated, but it isn’t!

2.       The loaf will be thin and flat & will develop a very firm crust

3.       It has a lovely sourdough type taste to it – delicious!

4.       Great with soft cheeses