aargh! echhhh! akkk! (sound of celestial choir singing 'ace of spades')

john abercrombie's guitar is great on this - very tsiji munoz/ sonny sharrock.

excellent. his mum has come back from town happy.

she departed for town grumpy and harassed. 

horsemouth was similarly grumpy and harassed. 

while his mum was away horsemouth did some weeding in the garden and that has cheered him up a little. whilst he did it horsemouth cheerily cursed the air black and blue. 

'we drove to lyme.' - kilvert, 9th august 1871 (still on holiday). 

there is a hereford and gloucester canal - but not much of it is open to the public in hereford.  if horsemouth comes down the other side of aylestone hill there's a park - and some of it is there.  otherwise it's a trip to ledbury. looks like more of it is open in the run to gloucester.

anyway. several possible daytrips there. 

yesterday potatoes from the garden, marrow, onion, spinach also. tomatoes and peppers from the greenhouse.  all very tasty.

-------------------------------------------------

'the sheer number of landlords in parliament is shocking. during an unprecedented housing crisis, it’s a blatant conflict of interest that MPs are making millions from struggling renters – while some even use taxpayer money to cover their own personal rents...' 

- jae vail, a spokesperson for the london renters union.

after the rushnara ali fall from grace ('becoming a distraction') horsemouth is pleased to see there's still some focus on the issue. curiously though he doesn't think government policy has in fact favoured small landlords of this type, he thinks government policy has been to sell them out to larger corporate landlords  and to mount tax raids on their earnings. 

p.s. full moon 9th august – 21:13 BST

and childhood memory

'in the midst of an intense glowing sweltering heat the country is all blue and golden with gleams of wheat about the hills' - kilvert, 8th august 1871 (still on holiday).

it's the afternoon of the thursday (but not quite world at one time). horsemouth has walked into ewyas harold and back to pick up a copy of the hereford times (effectively just for the tv guide). 

his mum has made some coffee so he's drinking that rather than his usual pot of tea. 

he's trying to put off re-reading marguerite duras' practicalities  until autumn (or winter) when it was dictated and written. he's still got quite a way to go with the plague (and it's still good). 

howard has been buying more music over on bandcamp. horsemouth will let you know what he makes of them.

it looks like united bible studies will be having a listening party on sunday 7pm for their new owl service produced album strange is the coastline. horsemouth will let you know more when he knows more.

looks like this is it.

it's the friday. last night the bell-ringing and after a discussion of growing up in 1940s sri lanka (or ceylon as it was) and childhood memory.

in the garden he's spotted some weeding he can do.  

horsemouth homelessness minister (and landlord)

a written entirely in the morning blogpost.

so homelessness minister, landlord, and east london MP rushnara ali has turfed out her tenants to replace them with people paying £700 a month more (classy). of course this is a moderate rent rise and not in the least bit grabby by modern standards. neither is telling the first set of tenants that she was evicting them to sell the house particularly dishonest by modern standards. 

but it's not very good is it? it's not exactly leading from the front on homelessness and poor housing. surely there's a bit of a conflict of interest here. (or is it just useful experience? rushnara's a landlord - she'll know)

'all the women in my books have lived in this house…' 

- marguerite duras, les lieux de marguerite duras

he watched marguerite duras talk about the houses where she (and her characters) have lived. this was mostly meaningless to him (because he has in fact read very few of her novels). horsemouth finds her sexual politics pessimistic (but probably accurate) and this is one of the key factors in the novels. her thoughts on writing and making films he finds extraordinary. and it is nice to see her house at neauphle-le-château (as mentioned in practicalities), it's a beauty.

we listen to her playing piano. we watch clips from the films. 

she chainsmokes throughout the interview (which horsemouth finds distressing, imagining the smell, and the smell sticking to the furniture) like a proper french intellectual. 

horsemouth's copy of practicalities seems to have vanished into the racks (which is strange because his racks are much reduced). ah no. good. he's found it. fuck me it's battered. he's parked it next to the millstone grit. 

yesterday a walk down to deliver some eggs. 

today. probably a walk into ewyas harold to get the hereford times (and some paracetamol, you can't have too much paracetamol in the house). later some bell-ringing. 

tomorrow. horsemouth has things he'd like to go to in london but he thinks he won't be going. he has to have a chat with his brother about moving stuff. 

'cinema, finished...'

kilvert is on holiday in the west country

he's been there since august the 1st and he returns to his parent's house in langley burrell on the 12th. the first volume of the diaries finishes on the 19th. 

on this day in 1871 there's an expedition to the beautiful st.andrew's church in monkton wyld.  this was built comparatively recently to him in 1849. kilvert notes the dressings of caen stone. 

tomorrow there's a big four page expedition to seaton and beer. 

oh dear kerfuffle about buying heating oil

apparently they can't just 'fill up the tank' , no they've got to send out an exact amount of heating oil (and no there are no 'summer prices') and if you've ordered too much to fit in your tank 'there's a surcharge' and they 'only deal on a weekly basis' so there's no arranging a more convenient delivery day for next week.

he has to admit this is not his recollection of how it worked last time. 

his mum has stomped off muttering dark imprecations. horsemouth is thinking that there's no rush.  they can wait for their order until the tank is a bit emptier. 

one key problem is that they do not know the precise volume of the tank (thus guessing how much can be fitted into it is a bit of a problem). horsemouth has just measured the outside and calculated it  (2.7m cubed) and even if it is smaller than he thinks it is (2m cubed) they should be fine fitting in 1500L because it is less than a quarter full etc.

horsemouth has just checked his bank balance and his recent credits and debits. 

a walk on the common

he bumps into a somewhat lost french tourist and directs them back towards ewyas harold.  on his way back he saw a fox (that's rare out here). 

earlier in the day a wander down to the abbey and back searching for the welsh water crew who were planning to deal with a burst water main (if they could find it).  before that a (brief) online meeting with james and colin. 

'cinema, finished. I would start writing books again...' - marguerite duras 

horsemouth was watching penelope spheeris's the decline of western civilisation part 3 - the LA gutter punk years. the punks are cute and smart but almost permanently drunk - they're either living out on the street or in unsafe accommodation (one of them dies during the making of the film when his squat burns down). 

'looking forward to the new series...' (the next episode)

'looking forward to the new series...' 

- paul clark, 9 years ago, as horsemouth moves out of his flat in pop(U)lar. 

'hope you ready for the next episode...' - dr. dre, snoop dogg, nate dogg. 

horsemouth has recommended albert camus' the plague to howard, largely because he has been reading it himself just recently and is finding it really good this time. 

'where some saw abstractions others saw the truth' 

- albert camus, the plague.

horsemouth has been rereading this (as you know). he listened to a podcast on it that basically said the metaphors don't work (the plague isn't the germans etc.). that may be so, and yet the novel itself works (and works well). it shifts between the concrete and the abstract. 

of course when the pandemic happened there was another reason to read it (and sometimes horsemouth will find parallels). 

on sunday horsemouth was asked what his plans for the week were and he was a bit stumped 

because he doesn't really have any plans.

next week, abbey rota week, it's a bit more obvious. 

this week he has to find some headphones so he can listen to some new stuff of howard's. 

er. he may have to do a meeting tomorrow morning. wednesday the eggs. thursday the bell-ringing. etc. 

the final electricity and gas bill has arrived for the house in the wen - horsemouth will have to have a think about how to divide up the reimbursements (depending on how much people have actually paid). he will need to have a chat with his brother about moving stuff.

in good news they've managed to eat half the marrow that horsemouth brought down at the house in the wen (so perhaps horsemouth will bring down another one when he is next down). 

some friends are in town 10th of september. that may be the last time horsemouth needs to be up for a while. they're around for two-ish weeks or so. 

soon horsemouth will have to test whether friend's offers of places to stay are fruitful or not. 

ok so this morning a meeting (maybe). looks like it will be a good day. 

books, films, gigs, events july 2025

books 

- the plague (albert camus)

- dusklands (j.m. coetzee) mostly 'the narrative...'

- journals (anais nin) volumes 2 and 3

- larry elliot in the grauniad  falling UK birthrate could be a good thing

- h.d. thoreau, a writer's journal, kilvert, fernando pessoa, the book of disquiet, journals etc. (as and when)

- guidance on the ECO 4 and ECO+ schemes

- strata-east bandcamp celebration

- art forum christian marclay and 'the record' 

- LRB katrina forrester on melinda cooper’s 'counterrevolution' 

films 

- satie day (R4)

- bookpilled  a review of 7 books including two histories of science fiction

-  judex (georges franju 1963)

- feuillade's les vampires

- les compagnons de baal

- R3 drama on the opening up of erik satie's flat after his death 

-  william freidkin's sorcerer

-  strata east documentary

- weirdshire radio volume 2

- outlaw bookseller, andy edwards (not the political stuff), 

- R4 on curtis yarvin/ nick land etc.

- nuits rouges 

-R4 'derailed' the history of HS2

- R4 'postwar' david runciman

gigs

a michelle coltrane gig from the hartford jazz festival (live streamed on youtube). 

webb dave on new river radio 

events

visit to the wen

centenary of the death of erik satie

the birthday of rashied ali.

the sheep moon (13 full moons in 2026)

the year's remaining full moons 

9th august – 21:13 BST

7th september – 19: 42 BST

7th october – 18:20 BST - harvest moon 

5th november – 15:55 UTC

4th december – 14:48 UTC

the last 3 are super moons - low to the horizon and thus appearing very large. 

13 full moons in 2026

yesterday horsemouth succeeded at herding sheep (with his mother's help, but nonetheless...). 

the great plan to encircle the fallen bow of the damson tree with fencing before the sheep could get at it failed and the sheep got at it and fed on the nearly ripe damsons with great avidity. horsemouth and his mum succeeded in herding them back up away and up the hill into next door's. 

also yesterday a meltdown. curiously not when the drama was going on but just after the drama but before the descent of the hill had been safely negotiated. 

the descent of the hill safely negotiated horsemouth pronounced a fuck it on the whole enterprise and went and got a beer. 

anyway monday the tree gets fenced round and then the sheep can be re-admitted. 

following the august moon horsemouth and is mum are on abbey rota. horsemouth suspects he will be doing the morning shift (9am opening) and then himself and his mum will do the evening shift (6pm closing). this is at least at the start of the week - towards the end it will just be horsemouth on his own (he suspects). 

it looks like being a hot week (24C plus).

horsemouth thinks he saw rico rodriguez once. just on the street. over near shepherd's bush market.

'hey rico!' yelled out the dude near horsemouth.

'rico' waved. 

does that make sense? (it certainly looked like rico from the photos and film horsemouth has seen). 

the album has one of those great sounding honking horn sections as well as that great reggae drums and bass. 

today er. rain horsemouth thinks. rain but not strong winds (those seem to have come out of the forecast). thereafter a cooler, calmer week.