the main hall of the temple (affectionate lamentation)

 'blessed indeed 

is this south valley,

where the gentle wind breathes

the faint aroma of snow...' 

- composed on this day in the main hall of the temple possibly at the dewa shrine by matsuo bashō. 

'the news of my leaving clyro is spreading through the village. these people will break my heart with their affectionate lamentations.' 

- kilvert's diary on this day in 1872. 

horsemouth is up. he has had his coffee and is just contemplating dashing downstairs to get the dregs. ok back in a minute. 

today and tomorrow the anniversary of the recording of geechie recollections by marion brown.

a greyish morning. horsemouth very likely to be excused watering. bell ringing later (maybe). 

yesterday a crow walked into the greenhouse to inspect a birdfeeder to see if there were any peanuts that had escaped in the process of filling it. having satisfied itself that none had escaped it hopped off. 

meanwhile. look at this baby experimental cinemas in state socialist eastern europe by gurshtein and simonyi. horsemouth found it while hunting for a poster of an exhibition of eastern european film clubs from an art exhibit at the whitechapel art gallery. he didn't go (but it's very him). 

allen ginsberg on the centennial of his birth (the record of my mind's epiphanies)

'I write about what goes through my mind, and naturally, the world goes through my mind. so it looks like I'm writing about the world, but I'm just writing about notating the record of my mind's epiphanies...' 

- allen ginsberg (born this day 1926). 

horsemouth has read the barry miles ginsberg biography. previously horsemouth thinks he focused on ginsberg's blake  experience. 

ginsberg was a fan of matsuo basho and worked on various haiku. 

today (maybe) matsuo basho climbed mount haguro (at least according to his a narrow road to the deep north). the dates might not be right (they may have moved as calendars move) but it's the date he claims.

horsemouth has two copies of the narrow road to the deep north - one falling apart, one in decent condition - the one has led a quieter life than the other or may be older (when he has found them both he will check). 

ok so the better edition is from 1979 (or thereabouts) and was bought from judd books (marchmont street), the other was printed in 1981 (or thereabouts) and while barcoded horsemouth doesn't know where he purchased it. 

he owns duplicate copies of terry eagleton's literary theory, of baudelaire's paradis artificiels, of george eliot's silas marner for sure. 

yesterday a walk on the common and a guide to the development of the common's water from st. james's well, to the tank, to the windmill, to the round tank. 

today the bins (recycling) and the eggs. a rainy day (hell weatherwise the next two weeks are not looking great). 

a 'godzilla' el niño is coming but it looks like it will not affect this summer but it will affect the winter.

'the grain is the body in the voice as it sings, the hand as it writes, the limb as it performs...'

nothing from kilvert today. 

from here on in an entirely written in the morning blogpost

how is the mule? well he's taken the milk over to the garage and fed the chickens. he has a bit of a cold. 

in the afternoon his mum is off into the village. hopefully she can pick up some coffee while she is there. (it won't be cheap but it will be coffee). 

and horsemouth has his coffee. he was up a bit earlier than usual. 

horsemouth re-read roland barthes' the grain of the voice essay for the first time in a number of years. it is not quite how he remembers it. there is much more consideration of the particularities of the french language and french art song (mélodie).  

'the grain is the body in the voice as it sings, the hand as it writes, the limb as it performs...' 

today more rain

horsemouth supposes it is good for the garden and that it will fill up the water butts. the nasturtiums were flowering (but the rain seems to have knocked some of the flowers off), some of the runner beans are flowering (as are the broad beans). the spinach plants are veritable trees. 

he should plant more peas. 

the foxgloves have survived the culling. horsemouth has saved some of the smaller poppies. he worries that they need to get a fruit net over the strawberries or the birds will have them all. the cherries, the damsons etc. are not here yet. the gooseberries are well on their way. 

monday 1st of june (the debris at the angel's feet)

it's monday the 1st of june (horsemouth likes the symmetry of this and thinks it deserves celebration  in some kind of a way).

'... I was haunted by the prospect of further full-scale wars between the socialist states: now half these states have joined the debris at the angel's feet...' 

-  benedict anderson, imagined communities, preface to the second edition. 

 so what is kilvert up to now that he is back in clyro?

'I went up the wern below gwernfydden this afternoon to see if the bog beans were yet in flower. since I looked for them a fortnight ago to-day and found none they have come and almost gone... I think it is one of the loveliest flowers that grows...

a pheasant whirred up from the swamp out of a clump of rushes, and in the dingle orchard above the cwm the yaffingale was laughing loud.' 

horsemouth writes this the day before but you can bet he will be turning over the calendar pages in the morning. 

it's the morning and horsemouth turns the page. 

the triple negative calendar page for june concerns basking sharks (creatures that have said no to evolution  and just kept on swimming) and a beast called the mauerschwalben - this word joins together swifts and swallows mauersegler and schwalben - horsemouth was surprised to discover that they were not related but are an example of convergent evolution where the same solution is re-invented in creatures of a different family. 

the ifaw calendar offers him a leopard for june (having offered him an elephant for may).

yesterday (as will be) he went for a walk upon the common (various dog walkers and their dogs). his usual halfway round route (he knows he should get up there more).  at some point he will need to wander into the village to pick up some more coffee to hold him until the next supermarket order. 

oh dear horsemouth has something to attach his generalised anxiety to. 

today er. rain (bugger). he should have gone and got the coffee while he had the chance. certainly a cool, greyish morning. the rain will at least excuse him watering. 

we roll towards the by-election that may get us andy burnham as possible labour leader (horsemouth does not expect that andy burnham can magically fix it). on the other hand he may get defeated at the by-election or he may win because restore has split the reform vote. 

makerfield (is it really just a name?)

books, films, gigs, events may 2026

 books

- diaries (mostly kilvert)

- e.m. cioran a history of decay 

- timpson's england 

- matsuo basho the narrow road to the deep north and other travel sketches

-  the bird of the dawning  john masefield 

- the war of  jenkins' ear (wikipedia)

-  imagined communities benedict anderson

- GDN what happens when deaths outnumber births? electricity prices, 

- BBC  and GDN worcester conservatives 

- standard grenfell fire charges

- eric ravilious’s 1929 almanack 

- nlr starmer stricken

- 

films

- waxworks (paul leni 1924)

-  a dj talk about the women of free jazz

- gwenifer raymond live at KEXP

- roger barnes winter work

- bookpilled/ outlaw bookseller

- aaron bastani and james butler in conversation (starmer doomed)

- trois hommes a abattre (1980 jacques deray)

- IFS on energy prices

- the drifting life of himeshiro 

- LRB john lanchester and thomas jones a rough guide to money

- BFI in conversation with derek jarman

- R4 rinsed (the british water industry), david attenborough world music collector, how reading made us

- LRB on politics: a new era for uk politics james butler, andy beckett, rory Scothorne and richard king

gigs 

the wave debb show (online)

events

mike H visit

cooler weather so probably a walk on the common

 so horsemouth has a whole load of text (on AI as a wage lowering tool) that he could offer up this morning but instead he thought he'd go for an entirely written in the morning blogpost.

last night (well this morning) he dreamt his father walked past carrying an axe (what in hell does that mean?). 

let's look at kilvert shall we.

'left langley for clyro for the last time... today is mina venables birthday and I went back to clyro on purpose to celebrate it.

flags were flying at clyro school and the children were swarming in and out of it like bees...

it seemed as if the night would never get dark and we could not begin the fireworks until nearly ten. they were the first fireworks ever seen in clyro and the village and the bron were swarming with people...'

it's a pretty joyous day. kilvert picked a good time to go back. 

(oh dear a whole raft of intrusive thoughts)

horsemouth needs to get back to the wen (and it's not just about getting out to the leigh folk festival). 

yesterday a zoom call with howard (and two bottles of beer). a promise to dig out horsemouth's copy of more brilliant than the sun by kodwo eshun (it's in the garage somewhere). meanwhile back in london howard is downsizing and out(ing) again. half term completes and he is into the last seven weeks of teaching to be followed by six weeks of holiday. (and then it all comes round again).

last night horsemouth forgot to lock up the chickens - they were all there this morning but one has taken to wandering round the top of the enclosure and not coming down to be fed. the crows are on the hen house roof now trying to work out how to get into the hen shed and rob some corn. 

yesterday horsemouth mucked out the henshed but it could do with a good clean and a spray with insect repellent. it is at least dry (it was getting pretty damp over winter). it would be good to get the roof looked at sometime. 

today cooler weather so probably a walk on the common. 

he will have to delay himself the pleasure of turning over the calendars until tomorrow (but he has peeked already anyway). 

he's going to invade mexico during the world cup?

in the early morning cuckoos calling outside.

to horsemouth in his dreamstate this sounded like people talking while they walked round the house. that's funny (he thought) they can't be walking round the house out here in the middle of the countryside. 

today an entirely written in the morning blogpost (in honour of it being a bright morning - or something similar).

he's going to invade mexico during the world cup? asked one of horsemouth's friends of trump. 

horsemouth is sad to say he laughed. 

horsemouth was just enjoying a fantasy where he was playing the leigh folk festival to great acclaim (but it ain't gonna happen). lou and leo are playing horsemouth says go see them. 

horsemouth had a quick scan of the GWARdian. trump's invasion plans have already dropped off the lead. 

'what, we don't have enough love in our hearts for two wars?' - det. james 'jimmy' mcnulty: