so sang pops staples (and later on the rolling stones sang something similar).
horsemouth shows you his 31st may 2021 mix (together with a pre-production photo from the fall of the house of fitzgerald) on this the 31st of december 2025. he has a further two golden glow mixes which he will 'share' with you again on successive weeks in january to echo his winter solstice garland of mixcloud mixes.
the year ends
the year ends. horsemouth is tired. he's not sure he has enough vim and vigour to attempt a summary. he'll see how he feels in the morning.
the morning
so it's the last day of the year and a cold and frosty morning.
horsemouth has his new calendars and diaries. as he noted he has in the last few years stopped many activities and started a handful of new ones.
horsemouth has survived another year. huzzah!
what happened in 2020(5)?
horsemouth continued his economic inactivity. (a 50plus retirees destroying the economy). he is living (just) on his savings and on his small works pension. he is spending hardly any money at all (especially now that he is no longer renting anywhere). he will have to check exactly how much he has left.
2025 was his fourth full year of retirement. (following on from his redundancy nearly four and a half years ago). he continues to be a lazy, morally compromised, lacto-vegetarian.
the music
horsemouth played no gigs in 2025. horsemouth did no filming or recording in 2025 (some recordings from 2022 languish unfinished on soundcloud). he bought (or found) no new musical instruments (that he can remember).
horsemouth was involved in no golden glow (or similar) mixes in 2025.
he saw alula down play in malvern, jazz jamaica play the festival hall (soundtracking babylon), he saw the blue oyster cult play for the first time ever (and that was awesome).
he kept on writing this blog (that's the main thing). he expanded out onto substack..
he bought far fewer second hand books and fewer CDs (because he was out of town).
he has endeavoured to get himself photographed whenever possible and to share these with you.
he read more this year (in an effort to recover the concentrated effort that he has managed in previous years). he watched a lot of clips on youtube. he didn't listen to much recorded music. he listened to webb david's techno-dub show on new river radio, and the music of robert lawson.
he thanks howard and all who have read, watched, listened to him, or liked or commented on the things he has produced (thank you people, horsemouth is very grateful).
he did a fair amount of walking. over to ewyas harold, up on the common. down by the abbey, over to sylvia's, up along the dulas valley with his brother and family (and also around generally during his visits to the wen).
meanwhile back in the wilds he is trying to learn bell-ringing and has enjoyed meeting the bell-ringers. he chats to the local bus driver about guitar playing (blues and rockabilly). at the bell-ringing he chats to paul about prog.
he grew some vegetables (too many marrows) and undertook some repairs.
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'at five minutes to midnight the bells of chippenham church pealed out loud and clear in the frosty air. we opened a shutter and stood round the window listening. it was a glorious moonlit night.
and here is the end of another year. how much to be thankful for. how much to be mourned over. god pardon the past and give grace to the future, and make the new year better than the old.'
- kilvert, kilvert's diary, 31st december 1871.
and 2020(6) comes in
what will happen then? find out tomorrow.
