the winter continues (great stagnation)

'crystal clear weather for a while, a joyful feeling upon seeing the sun, everywhere steam: steam from the aube as if it were boiling, steam from the fields. when I look up to the sky while walking, without realizing I walk on a curve toward the north. right after the aube, the steam from a field was so thick and so low above the ground that I waded through it shoulder-high. viewed far and wide, the land is almost flat. a mangy woman chases a mangy dog out of the house. oh, my god, how I am cold...' 

- werner herzog, of walking in ice, 10th december 1974.

'I go through periods of great stagnation...' 

- fernando pessoa, the book of disquiet, fragments 67 (66), 10th december 1930

oh dear horsemouth lost his temper again 

his mother, aunt and uncle have departed to attempt to keep the ancestors grave clean in a rainstorm. horsemouth does not think this is entirely wise (but it will certainly be an adventure). 

because he had lost his temper he didn't think to propose that today was maybe not the day for it. he supposes that people will come to this conclusion at some point. if they are cut off by flood water they are in a car and  there are hotels etc. (they have money). 

ah they've made it back

here in the wilds of herefordshire  it has been predicted that after the storms of the 9th the 10th will be sunny.  (so far horsemouth is not observing this)

but when it comes this will (doubtless) cheer horsemouth up. the rainy weather and dark nights make him feel a bit trapped. peak darkness is on or round about the 21st of december (the winter solstice) thereafter (long dark tunnel) there is movement back up towards the light. 

before that there's his brother's daughter's graduation. after it is the festival that shall not be named and  a visit from his brother's family. 

and then the winter continues (and indeed intensifies). 

does horsemouth sneak away from social gatherings to write? yes he does. 

and in the new year

come may horsemouth predicts political carnage as both labour and the conservatives watch their electoral base evapourate. horsemouth is unclear what the effect of PR will be across the border in wales. this means reform (assuming that they have not all been outed as racists and soviet agents by then, assuming anyone even cares) will not be denied their share of the vote. 

does horsemouth predict an early election? 

no he does not. the only viable labour strategy is to cling on and hope things get better (the sunak prevarication). 

weather permitting

tomorrow much better weather for herzog on his walk from munich to paris 

but today, the same old same old

'... uncertain about the route today, probably straight toward troyes, possibly via wassy. the cloud situation has hardly changed since yesterday, the very same thing: rain, gloom. noon in dommartin-le-franc; I ate a little. the countryside is boring, hilly, bare, plowed wet fields. in the furrows cold water has gathered, at a distance all dissolves in cloudy drizzle. it’s really not rain, just sheer drizzle.' 

- werner herzog, on walking in ice, 9th december 1974. 

'everything he did was a saving, a using again, a refusal to discard, to give up, to waste... we ourselves were often the recipients of grandpa's craft. when he wrote to us we recognised those second hand envelopes. he wrote on coloured paper, bits stuck together. his letters were happy and amusing and unique. they were about doing 'jobs', making new things from old things, making things work as fresh objects. they were essentially about life.'

-david grubb on his grandfather in beneath the visiting moon (1983). 

it is the 30th anniversary of the death of philosopher gillian rose - horsemouth has her love's work round here somewhere (which he recommends highly).  round about the time of the crisis group one of the youngsters recommended it to horsemouth and a week or so later he found it in the gower street oxfam (well ok the one opposite bookmarx). 

she died in 1995. we are probably talking 2008-2010 here when horsemouth read the book. 

yesterday horsemouth he has wandered into the village to pick up some (unnecessary) provisions. a neighbour's air-source heat pump is

today 

weather permitting his mum is off to keep the ancestor's graves clean the other side of hereford (stoke prior).  at the moment it is dark and rainy (but it is not pelting it down). we should see in the morning. horsemouth and his mum expect the aunt and uncle to cancel. 

to open up the emotions and the memories

'during the night I was very cold. an old man crosses the bridge, unaware that he’s being watched. he walks so slowly, and ponderously, pausing again and again after short, hesitant steps; that is death walking with him. all is shrouded still in semi-darkness. low clouds, it won’t be a good day...' 

- werner herzog, of walking in ice, 8th december1974. 

after this herzog is off into a memory, off up a mountain (and we cannot follow him). but all these little glimpses of his journey, of his life, are good. the power of isolation to open up the emotions and the memories. 

in pluribus, after the joining, the many are truly one. thus any of the many can do anything that one of the many could do (such as fly a plane). they also don't need to discuss or debate doing things or even agree how something should be done. they just start doing it in the most resource effective way possible.

it kind of reminds him of occupy (or of the current fetish for people's assemblies). 

a utopia of marvellous efficiency beckons

(you don't know how beautiful this looks to horsemouth. he has spent a lifetime begging to be allowed to do the obvious).

but first they must clear up all the dead bodies

later it will be revealed, they are so empathic that not only can they not kill any animals for food they can also not pick apples or harvest wheat. windfalls can be gleaned, roadkill can be harvested, and dead human bodies can by ground up for 'milk' (the soylent green defence). 

the empathy of the infected is a thought experiment - any activity is likely to cause some animal or plant suffering somewhere. 

despite all this the infected will soon start dying out of starvation.

horsemouth remembers a dietary restriction called fruitarianism being briefly popular among the harder core vegans. 

now of course veganism (applied on a world scale) would require vast changes in agriculture (even vegetarianism would require many changes). without animal poo/ pesticides  conventional agriculture becomes much less efficient. it probably wouldn't starve us to death though. 

'... and then it really began to rain, total rain... forever winter rain'

 it really isn't going well for herzog at all. and yet he's getting the walk done.

'I immediately pulled the covers of my display bed over my ears when I saw how hard it was raining outside. please, not this again! can the sun be losing every consecutive battle? it wasn’t until eight in the morning that I finally set out again, already completely demoralized at that early hour. a merciless rain and humidity, and the profoundest desolation pressed down upon the land. hills, fields, morass, december sadness.

mirecourt, from there onward in the direction of neufchâteau. there was a lot of traffic and then it really began to rain, total rain, a lasting-forever winter rain...'

- werner herzog, of walking in ice, 7th december 1974. 

here it is pretty much looking like solid rain for the next two weeks (ok horsemouth tells a lie, they have wednesday the 10th off the rain having given it a good solid go on tuesday the 9th). 

a photo of horsemouth in the wilds of the east end (24th july 2025) has been popular (horsemouth is up into double figures on the likes for it).

saturday evening a zoom beer with howard 

pluribus formed much of the discussion. horsemouth is now thinking about similarities with the midwich cuckoos following an outlaw bookseller session on that. bookpilled had stuff to say too. 

outlaw bookseller talks about woke and postmodernism and cultural relativism but horsemouth thinks he doesn't get it really. he's a grumpy old man. he does, however, quote alfred north whitehead, or at least the part of the quote that j.g. ballard liked to quote, 

'it is the business of future to be dangerous'

but there is more to it than that; 

'it is the business of future to be dangerous; and it is among the merits of science that it equips the future for its duties...' - alfred north whitehead, science and the modern world (1925). 

'the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur' -symbolism: its meaning and effect (1927). 

so 2020(5) goes out and 2020(6) comes in

outside it s rainy and grey. inside horsemouth has a sniffly nose and a sore throat. he is reading under the visiting moon  by david grubb, an account of his childhood (among other things), he is better known as a poet. 

the flooding. what do people make of it?

'the chairs in the restaurant were still standing on the tables, but I was served breakfast graciously nonetheless. beside me in the restaurant, which was otherwise empty but for two cleaning women, the waitress was taking breakfast, and together we looked in the same direction, the direction of the street. I wanted to look over at her, but neither of us dared direct our gaze at one another, for due to a secret, compelling reason this wasn’t allowed. I’m sure she was under the same compelling urge. she stared rigidly ahead, the urge urged us both...' 

-  werner herzog, of walking in ice, 6th december 1974.

tomorrow 'mirecourt, from there onward in the direction of neufchâteau'

the flooding. what do people make of it? 

it's all the fault of the ecologists and greens and beavers. the rivers need dredging. 

horsemouth (of course) stayed silent. he is of the opinion that to survive out here he needs to do two things

1) learn to grow vegetables

2) disguise his real political opinions

at the moment it is raining (tipping it down) 

and it is due to do this for the next two weeks 

horsemouth hopes there is no more flooding in ewyas harold etc. there have been two floods in the last year, that's as many as in the previous ten years. the real problem is that places become uninsurable. 

if horsemouth were to pipe up then he'd mention global warming - warmer air can hold more moisture so sudden storms release more water in the same time are more destructive.  

of course if the AMOC (the atlantic meridional overturning circulation) packs in or reduces then things in britain (and ireland and  iceland) will get colder and drier. what would cause the AMOC to pack up? global warming and the melting of the greenland ice shelf. 

in the evening

horsemouth watched the omega factor (1979) on youtube an edinburgh set supernatural/ sciencefiction crossover shocker. in episode 1 there was a brief night of the demon homage. he forgets the reference that took him there. 

in the morning

the rain has started up again. 

a bridport like prague

'set out very early in the morning. the alarm clock I’d found ticked so treacherously loud in the house I left behind that I climbed back inside, retrieved it, and threw it a bit further away into some undergrowth. right after fouday the most awful downpour began, rain mixed with hail, the black clouds threatening evil. I took shelter under a tree in the lingering morning gloom. below me the road, and beyond the brook some railway tracks. it’s so dismal. a little further it really gets serious. I crouched above the road beneath the fir trees, my poncho drawn...'

- werner herzog, on walking in ice, 5th december 1974. 

herzog has made it into france (possibly the day before) but he's still about a week away from paris and his goal. 

it is also the day of kafka's manic episode (in 1915) -  there may be other manic episodes but this one makes it into the diary. the proximate cause of this one is war bonds and whether or not kafka should buy them. 

horsemouth has a headache. he had a headache yesterday too. his mum has retired back to bed with the shivers after a busy day yesterday. (horsemouth is contemplating having to cook.) it's cold and flu season and there's a lot of it about. 

what he thinks he will do is wander into the village to pick up the newspaper and a few tins of soup, a few more loaves of bread and such like.  he did it. they are up one loaf of bread and one tin of soup because he did the shopping in a bad mood having quarreled with his mum about the shopping list. he bought some kindling wood and the hereford times also but failed to remember to get some teabags (because he was in a bad mood). 

he got soap and toothpaste (not that he's convinced they actually need them). 

in horsemouth's valley it is in the shade. up on the common there is golden sunshine. the walk to the village and back cheered horsemouth up a bit (and did good things for his headache). 

horsemouth's mobile is still on the fritz

this makes the bell-ringing problematic. horsemouth will see how he feels in a bit. 

ok he's going. 

his mum has two things booked before her granddaughter's graduation ceremony. all these should be possible.  the first thing is not until tuesday, the second not until friday. in a way horsemouth is looking forward to it (it is activity). 

it will entail either an early am start or a walk to pontrilas on the wednesday (horsemouth suspects).  unless it is pissing it down the walk may be the better option. the day of the journey up looks unpleasant and the day of the journey back also. (hopefully the weather won't be so bad that it all gets cancelled or everyone gets stranded).

after all of this there's a post-christmas visit coming (which horsemouth is looking forward to) by his brother's family (he's not sure how extensive that will be).  

horsemouth is happier than he was earlier but he's still wrestling with the difficulties of being in the wilds.  possibly saturday zoom beers with howard. 

it's the morning. horsemouth dreamt of bridport (a bridport like prague). later he was at a dinner party with some younger people. they were going to climb out of a window to perform but there was a dinner party in the back garden next door who started playing records. 

'I walk straight between sun and moon...'

'an immaculately clear, cool morning. everything is hazy on the plain, but one can hear life down there. the mountains, full and distinct in front of me, some elevated fog, and, in between, a cool daytime moon, only half-visible, opposite the sun. I walk straight between sun and moon...'

- werner herzog, on walking in ice, 4th december 1974. 

tonight a full moon (the cold moon). 

horsemouth has finished reading wylder's hand  by j. sheridan le fanu. as horsemouth surmised he has been dead all along. he doesn't think you will be too shocked to hear that, nor does he think knowing it will impair your reading of the novel. so much action in the weeks from his death to the body being discovered. the evil lawyer larkin's schemes have miscarried. dorcas and rachel lake make their escape to a gondola on the lagoon in venice (where we see them for the last time). 

'all affection is illusion, and perishable with the deceits and vanities of earth.' 

horsemouth will post up his review to goodreads.  

now he will have to find another book to read. 

after much cursing horsemouth managed to top up his mobile phone (ok it looks like he spoke too soon).  

in a bit he's going to go out on an egg delivery. everything has worked out on the going to the doctors front. his mum is off in town looking at some suits she had altered. a beautiful autumnal afternoon. a neighbour was out cycling. a neighbour was out walking their dog. golden sunshine spilled over the hill from the common. 

and now we are rolling towards nightfall. 

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

young fingerpicker hayden pedigo (interesting dude) has published a list of his favourite fahey albums (interestingly it includes none of the later revenant ones as it were, nothing after 1992's old girlfriends and other horrible memories for example, nothing, indeed, after 1971).

1) days have gone by (1967) - a good entry point, he says and the only one on this list horsemouth actually owns.

2) america (1971) - 'fahey's masterpiece... a patchwork quilt of the story of american music'

3) the great santa barbara oil slick (live 1968/69) - 'fahey's greatest album' 

4) the yellow princess (1968)

5) the great san bernardino birthday party(1966)  - 'the most psychedelic acoustic guitar album of all time' 

horsemouth would probably have live in tasmania  for the live album. he'd probably have fare forward voyager instead of yellow princess. he'd probably keep days have gone by. that would give him two spaces on the list for fahey's later (and often electric) work - red cross disciple of christ, perhaps city of refuge, nothing from the post takoma years, nothing from the orchestra albums.

here a rainy, dark morning. his mum is wiped out after yesterday's trip to the doctors and trip to town.