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Text of the page (random words):
d take that red thief down o and right in the middle of the pen where she knew that the fox would come again she d placed a lifelike decoy hen made of straw and feathers brown o the fox approached this tempting bird but then he stopped it had not stirred his red fur stood up as he heard a most disturbing sound o old mother flipper flopper gave a cry she aimed and let both barrels fly when the smoke cleared fox just winked his eye for he d kept his wise head down o he grabbed a nice fat duck instead while old mother flipper flopper held her head there s no more to be done she said for i am out of amm o fox twirled his brush and away he leapt old mother flipper flopper cursed and wept for through it all old john had slept and yet again they were one duck down o for reasons unknown i had the old folk song the fox going round in my head all day yesterday it s a song i learned in childhood and i ve always loved the simple story the bouncy tune and the way the words are packed tightly into each verse it s also a very ancient song known for centuries in england before crossing the atlantic to become a staple of of the american folk tradition too i decided it was high time for an update and for old mother flipper flopper the version i learned to take the more prominent role her name alone surely earns her caped crusader monday 1 september 2025 gonecyclingagain leave a comment it s everything a cycling garment shouldn t be if you take the conventional view that these things should be smooth slinky aero free of all extraneous materials and weight cut close to the body to slice and dice the breeze but sheltered here by its broad voluptuous folds i am impervious to wind rain and ridicule not slowly boiling in a plastic bag but free to feel the air swirl around me half nomad half one ring travelling circus and in my defiance of the expected just a little bit heroic this is about cycling in my waterproof rain poncho in cheerful rowanberry red i ve had it for some time but never used it until this week having been a road cyclist for 30 years it should be anathema in almost every respect but i absolutely love it and wish i d tried it sooner it s also emblematic of a wider shift in myself and my approach to life in general i m currently undergoing hence writing this little celebratory poem about it i got caught in a downpour this morning and it worked amazingly well the best part is that it doesn t trap heat like gore tex and its ilk although those technical fabrics allow you to ride at full speed they re not nearly as breathable as they d like us to think they are so you get really hot in them and usually end up as wet from the inside as you would have got without wearing a jacket at all with its billowy shape it s a poor sail but an excellent parachute the poncho militates against fast riding you just have to roll along which is a much more mindful approach to riding in the rain i feel like i ve discovered a secret superpower which of course is exactly what a cape should bestow on its wearer independence movement monday 30 june 2025 gonecyclingagain 2 comments we wear our differentness lightly not provocative ostentatious or out to shock ours is a quiet teatime rebellion a steely determination not to follow in the wheels meekly drafting form or fashion but to find our own meandering path untroubled by the world s desire always to go further faster and add a little grace and beauty to all we find around us this is peak season for riding my guv nor gt a respectful contemporary revival of the bikes british firm pashley made when it was founded back in the 1920s the eight speed hub gear is a nice concession to my dodgy knees the reynolds 531 frame and big volume tyres combine to give a smooth comfortable ride and the whole experience is wonderful despite or perhaps because of its being a complete anachronism and as well as putting a smile on my face the guv makes other people smile too which only adds to the pleasure odonata monday 23 june 2025 gonecyclingagain leave a comment i ve never seen you but you ve always been here two hundred million years have left no mark on your enamelled armour you watched the dinosaurs come and go untouched by fire riding high above the oceans surge skimming through the dust and cold hunting down the weakest link in the all collapsing chain wings that beat the carboniferous air now thrum across a summer garden as you add your tale of weeks to seventy three billion days a infinitesimal twinkle in the universe s eye till alien bejewelled you launch and spin away over the fence and gone again a momentary glimpse into the vast abyss of time saw my first brown hawker dragonfly aeshna grandis in the garden this morning when one paid us a brief but scintillating visit it s a magnificent creature and although its wingspan is only about four inches it seemed as big as a sopwith camel in our modest urban domain i always feel there s something rather alien about dragonflies they look as though they ve been meticulously constructed from exotic metals and exquisitely engineered parts like the martians machines in the war of the worlds it s also humbling to remember that while as a family they re older then the dinosaurs modern dragonflies have been with us for around 200 million years each individual takes to the air for just a few weeks so i felt doubly lucky to see it guilt trip wednesday 21 may 2025 gonecyclingagain leave a comment i tell myself i want to write devote myself to words and rhyme and it s not lack of appetite preventing me but want of time so here i am with empty days that i can spend just as i like but do i mend my idle ways of course not i just ride my bike because i see my destiny lies on the road and on the page they both bring out the best in me each acting as a vital gauge of health in body and in mind and i have slowly learned to tell what medicine i need to find and where and which will serve me well been on holiday in brittany and as usual completely failed in my pre departure resolve to get some writing done while i was away did manage to jot down a few bits and bobs including this but also clocked up around 500 km on the bike which i came to realise was what i actually needed more the lesson i ve taken from this is to be less hard on myself listen to my mind and body and not beat myself up if i don t feel like writing for a few days i just have to remind myself that the desire to write is always there somewhere and that i ll always come back to it it s not just something i do but part of who i am n forward wednesday 7 may 2025 gonecyclingagain leave a comment and so it comes to this a man sits all alone to contemplate his life he wonders what went wrong what misstep did he make what path was he once shown but somehow never took the years have been so long and yet not long enough so much remains undone so many peaks to climb so many roads to ride and as he stares towards the setting of the sun he wonders what is left what will he be denied by life s swift onward rush he asks is it too late to chart a different course steer by another star while in his heart he knows this is his chosen state and there s no turning round the way back is too far so he could stop and stand let life go drifting by while trying to figure out exactly what to do but something stirs within he knows that he must try and from this point he sees the only way is through more alexandrines from the garden they re such fun to write n ghost wednesday 19 march 2025 gonecyclingagain 3 comments a swift shape briefly glimpsed as i passed by the hedge i stopped to look again hopes high senses alert the world at once reduced to here and now no more and then my breathing stopped i stood there open mouthed i watched you rise and wheel as though some sudden spell were spoken to the air to conjure you for me ten seconds or an hour time lost all meaning then all other thought consumed by your soft soundless flight to look into your eyes to see your white wings flex a parting of the veil a sacred reaching out before you disappeared beyond the sheltering trees to leave me there alone bereft of words and breath but all i wanted then was to apologise to beg you to forgive the wickedness we ve wrought in all we took from you your home and hunting grounds the little you have left fragmented and disturbed and moments such as mine so rare and bitter sweet reward and yet rebuke joy salted with despair more alexandrines this time inspired by my close encounter with a barn owl tyto alba yesterday i had no words at the time but managed to string these together later still wholly inadequate for what was a truly magical moment i borrowed salted from edward thomas s poem the owl a far superior evocation of this astonishing creature n guilty pleasures tuesday 18 march 2025 gonecyclingagain 4 comments at last the sleeping fields wake to the touch of spring and every walk and ride now promises to bring the sweet scent of crushed grass the tang of new turned earth bright shining leys new lambs the long quiet land s rebirth the primrose on the bank the blackbird on the tree i sense the great wheel s turn in all i hear and see and yet there is a guilt all that i find so fair puts poison in the ground pollutants in the air and all the land is owned by the same one percent who through their greed and lies caused albion s descent and all these birds and blooms a mockery and shade of all that once was ours all that we have unmade decided to try some alexandrines lines of 12 iambic feet with a caesura after the third one the form traditionally used in french heroic verse it says here nothing very heroic about this piece i m afraid it s wonderful that spring has finally arrived but my recent reading and personal observations have made me realise that all is very far from well in this country of ours beautiful and seemingly bountiful as it is this is the most nature depleted landscape in the whole of europe and the declines in numerous species of birds plants insects and animals are heart stopping my guilt arises from the fact that i ve always enjoyed watching agricultural machinery at work and my increasing anger from knowing that the self styled stewards and custodians of the countryside are often anything but rightly or wrongly i am a nature poet by instinct and probably always will be but in this day and age i feel i have to confront the realities of environmental degradation the climate emergency and the injustices of britain s land ownership regime too to do otherwise seems naive self indulgent and irresponsible it still feels uncomfortable but then maybe that s the point adventures in downland monday 17 march 2025 gonecyclingagain leave a comment no great mountains unseen vistas unmapped country paths untrodden all within sight of farm and village all within sound of the main coast road fifty miles from the seething city twenty or less from my own front door but out alone beyond my oft beaten bounds over a hill i have not climbed in years on roads that never left their dust on these two wheels before into a wind from high cold lands beneath the red kite s all seeing eye i d call that a real adventure enjoyed a 40 mile round trip to litlington in the heart of the south downs with the mgb matcha green brompton yesterday i hadn t been out that way for a long time and never on the brommie so it felt like a proper adventure the more so since i always think a mile on a brompton is worth two on a big wheeled bike a beautiful march sunday with wild flowers and lambs everywhere but a stiff freezing cold nne wind reminding me it s still only early spring the white figure just visible on the hillside in the background is the long man of wilmington a giant figure 235 feet tall carved into the chalk sadly he s not especially ancient he s thought to date from the 16th or 17th century but he s a local icon particularly since he now gives his name to some really excellent ale brewed nearby gouverner c est choisir monday 10 february 2025 gonecyclingagain 2 comments the world is full of darkness hate and fear feed off each other stoked by wicked men so drunk on power that all we once held dear and thought was safe is threatened once again so easy to be overrun and feel there is no hope no purpose any more when we are made to question what is real and certainty and truth are shown the door but i can make my choice i could engage and join the war in hope of some release from all this angst or i can turn the page and leave them to it while i work for peace against such forces i can only lose in thought and life to govern is to choose the famous observation gouverner c est choisir to govern is to choose was made in 1953 by pierre mendès france then prime minister of france i ve come to realise that while i can t change the situation i find myself in i can govern my own thoughts and reactions to it but that means making choices which in turn means remaining vigilant and not allowing myself to be swept along by the tide it s hard and i keep forgetting that i do have a choice over where to direct my frankly limited reserves of energy hope and resilience but choose i must or risk being utterly overwhelmed by it all bon courage tout le monde posts navigation older posts pages about recent posts foxed again caped crusader independence movement odonata guilt trip blogroll ann bowes authored angioplasty four windows press thomas davis ina japan life trifles john looker martin shone poetry from the sea ina read between the minds charles small talk archives april 2026 1 september 2025 1 june 2025 2 may 2025 2 march 2025 3 february 2025 1 october 2024 2 september 2024 2 july 2024 2 june 2024 1 may 2024 2 april 2024 1 january 2024 1 september 2023 5 august 2023 1 july 2023 1 june 2023 3 april 2023 3 march 2023 1 january 2023 4 september 2022 1 july 2022 4 january 2022 7 october 2021 5 september 2021 1 august 2021 3 march 2021 3 february 2021 1 january 2021 4 november 2020 3 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