monday tuesday

what did monday look like for horsemouth?

well the morning he just farted about until 11 and then he was off to see enza. he just made the earlier train and so got there a little early he hung around outside the hospital. a tibetan lama walked past (with an entourage of two) and he wandered back. 

earlier there had been a little girl with a plastic trumpet on the train 'hello ello ello ello'  she kept saying, 'you can blow the trumpet as loud as you want when you get off the train' said her mum. 

later (after lunch) himself and enza and michelangelo were up the park where they bumped into suke. the masses were out (partying like it was summer). rollerblading, skateboarding, cycling. running, sunbathing, walking their dogs, stopping off for a pint, pushing babies in prams. 

eventually horsemouth returned via the train. and the sun shone. and still the people partied like it was summer already. 

what will tuesday look like for horsemouth?

well he has nothing booked. (ok he tells a lie, he has something booked for the morning). 

the weather will be getting progressively better each day. 

how is he to interpret the heron in the back garden?

he bought/ sought more books this visit - perhaps his collecting aversion is over and he is back into the sunny uplands of building a library. he's even reading at a decent pace (helped by lots of tube journeys admittedly). 

he's up. his brother is back. last night pizza and a half-glass of beer. 

old oak common

 yesterday in the morning

horsemouth got the overground over to willesden junction. his main reason in going there was to witness the constructions of the HS2 facilities at old oak common. 

after a brief mooch round the station he headed off down old oak lane (with a diversion round stephenson street) and the acton railwaymen's houses and onto loverose way before continuing round old oak common lane into the dead end triangle of wells house road.

escaping that he carried on to the bus stop on brunel road where he chickened out and got a 7 (eventually returning through ladbroke grove). the labyrinth of streets had defeated him (he did not make it to the city on the hill with its skyscrapers and so forth). 

strangely as a walk this is not very impressive. it being a bit above a mile. 

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yesterday in the afternoon/evening. 

food at dave's (claudia was away) and a walk down to leytonstone (across the hollow ponds) to the pub (horsemouth got out at a pint and a half) and then back again with the daylight slowly fading (then horsemouth walked back up to highams park).  

on his way back he found italo svevo's a life in a bookbox, which is not, as he first thought, an autobiography, but a novel about a very fernando pessoa type character. 

on their way to the pub they saw the screaming lady from leytonstone tube (she was only making some noises not full blooded howling). 

you see this is getting on for about 5 miles yet because horsemouth knew where he was going(ish) it didn't feel that far. 

today

well a visit. probably an hour each way walk. 

the screaming lady of leytonstone tube

a long walk around with H.A. (off into the forest)

the meet? 10am chingford railway station.

the plan? some turkish food and then off into the forest.

the result? a cafe breakfast (egg, beans, mushrooms, tomato, chips, tea, 2 toast) and then off into the forest. (the turkish place now doesn't open til 12)

off into the forest

our starter hike? 3 miles to high beech. (there a pint of greene king IPA each - initially disliked but we drank on regardless).

horsemouth gave howard (sorry H.A.) his copy of at the edge of the world by john berger and jean mohr. 

this was followed by 2 miles to loughton tube (with a stop off at a pub in loughton for a pint - sorry horsemouth had forgotten the name - ah. the plume of feathers). 

horsemouth got the tube from loughton to leytonstone. howard was off to stratford in search of a bus. 

at leytonstone the screaming lady of leytonstone tube who has upped the begging anti to screaming with despair the whole time. 

horsemouth then got the bus (W16) to highams park (for much of the journey he was convinced he was on the wrong bus such was the winding nature of the route).  

in the early morning hours a dream about selling his clothing somewhere in dalston (there he was in the shop dressed only in his underwear). today he's unsure what he is doing. he needs to get some replacement coffee.   

but he has his cup of coffee and he has started reading all the names by jose saramago. so far the set up with the giant office of births and deaths (where they have to keep extending out the back wall to keep up with the newly dead). horsemouth's copy is a harvill edition. on the front cover there is someone with tape over their mouth with mor-peg written on it (the cover art for this, as for many harvill books, is by paula piglia). 

literary distribution device (at the edge of the world)

yesterday

in the morning a walk with TG over to stratford for coffee. the velodrome was shut for an event. the first alternative cafe had shut down. they ended up in their usual spot. 

on the way back horsemouth bumped into pete. 

literary distribution device

at one point a dandelion was attached to the end of the zip tie on the chopstick - it was a device for distributing dandelion seeds. later a biro was attached to the zip tie - it became a literary distribution device (earlier it had been a device for fighting of seagulls or midges). 

in the afternoon a lie down (it's been a busy couple of days). horsemouth attempted a book review (having just finished a quiet place). 

today the plan is a long walk around with howard. 

horsemouth has his coffee and some peace and quiet. he was early to bed last night (having finished off a quiet place he read some of jean mohr's at the edge of the world). 

he listened to helen thompson discussing  energy flows in the world economy and what flows from this politically.

'I find it quite hard to know just how bad things could get...' remarks james butler. 

outside a greyish day. (progressively more sun til thursday). 

his legs are quite tired after all the walking about. 

heron in the back garden (to the cruel wars of high barnet)

this morning (as horsemouth made his coffee) there was a heron in the back garden. by the time horsemouth had found his camera and made his way downstairs again it had flapped off to a neighbouring garden. 

yesterday

a visit and then a journey to high barnet.

thence lunch, coffee, and some charity shopping with former work colleague paul clark.

accessions diary

- american avant-garde theatre: a history, arnold aronson, one squid. 

- the well at the world's end volume 1, william morris, pan unicorn edition (mostly for the cover), one squid

- the end of eddy, edouard louis, you remember horsemouth has an autobiography by him, one squid

- all the names,  jose saramago, one squid.

- at the edge of the world, jean mohr/ john berger, one squid. 

then a visit to the barnet museum, a walk back to paul clark's partner's house (toni) and after some car business dinner, a glass of wine, and then horsemouth was off back home on various trainlines. 

within the old power station a consumer paradise

in the morning horsemouth went off to check out battersea power station (the new tube station on the northern line) and the reopened power station itself. (after having done barking riverside the day before).

within the old power station a consumer paradise (so of little or no interest to horsemouth). there was even peppa the pig. control room b (site of the hipgnosis for the album cover of hawkwind's quark, strangeness and charm) was closed (but horsemouth could see that it was there). 

he then attempted to roll away along the riverside but frequently found his route blocked. massed joggers jogged past being healthy. he diverted off into the new builds and then back to the river. by mi6, on efra quay, a poem on an airvent.

'river efra stubbornly underground, resurrects a coffin sends it bobbing down the thames, the dead will not stay buried in its persistent spring.' 

(artwork: hidden rivers. hidden times, dorothy smartt).

he crossed over to research the second hand shops of pimlico (which he remembered as being quite good). 

in the evening a meet with minty at the sourdough and craft beer place by st. james' railway station. (he was on good form). and then a walk back.

today a meet and then off to sunny high barnet. 

horsemouth: antiquary, traveller, naturalist

well here we are april the first and horsemouth is about to head up out into the woods.

having raided the sally army horsemouth is up a copy of charles lancaster's seeing england: antiquaries, travellers, naturalists (50p). 

yesterday a visit to barking riverside (aka. doomed megalopolis). the elevated overground making a huge swerve out of barking down into it. is it high enough above the (tidal) river to avoid flooding? time will tell. 

having walked around the foreshore and back along the least promising road (passing infrastructure way but missing bastable avenue) at one point horsemouth was sat in a coffee shop. at another he was playing tubular bells in oyster catcher park.  buses from barking arrived and departed. 

horsemouth likes the edgelands where development is incomplete. where ideas are roughly sketched larger than life just to occupy spaces until something else comes along. 

then to dave and claudia's for a catch up.  whence back via the various hostelries on wood street. 

today (as he mentioned) a wander round the woods. in the evening a meet up with minty.