and all of a sudden. out of the blue. everything changes. back again.

an entirely written in the morning blogpost

he had an entire other blogpost (on how unlikely it is that civilisation will still be around to collect on student loan repayments now that their terms have been extended) all lined up and ready to go. 

now horsemouth had been planning on going up to the wen but his brother swapped the dates on him and horsemouth went up early but he didn't get to see everyone he wanted to see. he was planning on going up again on the previously agreed date but he couldn't get cover so he'd resigned himself to having to disappoint his friends.

suddenly last night a phonecall from his brother (well a message on facebook messenger - but you know what he means). his brother could swap with him for the weekend. 

this still left horsemouth with the problem of squaring it with his mum (who dislikes change at short notice) and arranging somewhere to stay etc. and then getting back in a timely fashion. 

on balance (and he may be wrong) horsemouth thinks it is better to go up at a later date for slightly longer. the new dates seem to suit (but frankly the old dates would have suited as well). 

as usual horsemouth is guilty of overthinking it/ reacting poorly to sudden change. 

what will horsemouth do today?

he will buy envelopes and stick things in the post (far future village band things). 

'... as soon as the first sounds began...'

yesterday was georgia faun day (in particular the afternoon). 

it was the anniversary of marion brown recording the first album in his georgia trilogy in 1970. (this is the great thing about jazz albums, they were recorded on particular days)

'... as soon as the first sounds began and we knew we were recording, everyone was in it and totally listening to one another—listening to the sounds that the others were making and always putting something in that complimented the other sound or contrasted the other sound one way or the other...'

- chick corea, afternoon of a georgia faun wikipedia entry. 

this is the album in the trilogy that horsemouth does not own. he has the others (sweet earth flying and geechee recollections) on a double CD. 

horsemouth himself collected snail mail addresses of his friends so that he could post out copies of the far future village band stories (in this case chapters one, two, and three). he chatted with iona online. 

he will get on with all of this today as part of his visit to the village. 

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'it is necessary, to recreate a world that conforms to one's interior image, and to do it systematically' - jean-pierre melville.

horsemouth is up. it is a greyish morning of low cloud. he has put the milk in the garage and fed the chickens. he has a slight headache. he has picked the last of the broad beans for this crop. the runner beans are a roaring success (everything else less so). 

the far future village band III is here!

it's here

the far future village band III is here 

(well at least in digital form). 

horsemouth has been listening to it and pronounces himself most pleased. as you know it features some of horsemouth's singing (and a small amount of his playing the harmonium). the rest of the music is provided by rob lawson (as usual it is great). 

it also features horsemouth narrating the first four chapters of his far future village band novel. he hopes to continue this in the next installment. everything seems to fit nicely together to horsemouth and soon there will be a booklet to go with it containing the four short stories/ character sketches. 

yesterday horsemouth went out and did some watering. 

it looks like one of the shrubs in the coppice (so called, not actually a coppice) has died with the heat. let us see if it will come back. 

the trees are doing fine. and the bushes. anything rooted in the soil with a decent root system (except for the shrub above). at least another two weeks of the heatwave to go (possibly more). 

horsemouth has hoisted a flag and his brother has seen it 

horsemouth was slightly spoiled by his trip to london. his mum claims there is another visit in september (of the long weekend variety) this would be really useful to horsemouth but it's not immediately, it's a way off. 

and sadly it comes just before another time when horsemouth could do with being up in the wen to welcome another visitor. 

there was a more immediate one (that his mum now claims is off) but it didn't work for horsemouth because it didn't include the weekend. 

ultimately horsemouth has to solve the problem of making short visits to the city when he needs to rather than that of making longer visits to the city when it suits his wider family. 

smoke is drifting up the valley

smoke is drifting up the valley. horsemouth went to see where it is coming from (from the military base he thought, but actually it seemed to follow the motorway). possibly from the wild fires in ebbw vale. 

a leaflet has arrived from the commons committee (rather than the water lot) - they will be cutting down more bracken and clearing more dead wood from the common in an effort to reduce the amount of combustible material lying around up there. 

church bells and black cat blues

'almost everything I write is about me. even funny fiction stories.' 

-  joe brainard, journal entry, 2nd june 1969 (quoted in the introduction by paul auster). 

wikipedia entry here (if like horsemouth you had never heard of him before, or if, also like horsemouth, you had heard of him once but had forgotten who he was since). 

horsemouth is feeling grumpy and at a loose end. 

howard is back from his travels round alfriston (but is off on another jaunt today). 

yesterday earlier on in the day church bells (a wedding). he saw the black cat sneaking round the house and then making its way down the drive. later on church bells again (as the newly married couple left). horsemouth picked some damsons and then there was a hunt through the garage for the storage jars and lids and such like. 

and from here on in an (entirely) written in the morning blogpost

looks like one of the chickens is on its way out. horsemouth has put it in the far shed with water and food to see if it will make a recovery. there were 9 recently added hens and 5 older hens, one of the older hens (horsemouth thinks) has since died. 

bruno's dream progresses well. bruno is dying and he is surrounded by a regular old cast of ne'er do wells. currently two of them are off doing the foxtrot. a couple talk in chunks of wittgenstein. at some point the thames will break its banks and we will have a dramatic denouement (doubtless). 

horsemouth wants to get stuff done but it is proving difficult. 

monday morning his mum is off to the doctors. 

'it was hard to say goodbye to my kind friends...'

kilvert (in 1872) is saying goodbye.

things horsemouth had not remembered

that chronicle of the guayaki indians starts with a birth. as the baby is born we are told about the anthropologist, guayaki cosmology and birthing practices all at the same time. 

he has repo-ed it from howard. 

he has iris murdoch's bruno's dream to be getting on with as well. 

things horsemouth had not known

coromandel wood is a variegated ebony wood (often from india, sri lanka, or indonesia). thus when kilvert described having a desk of coromandel wood bound round with brass horsemouth made nothing of it, but eventually he came to look at the word and wonder what it meant... and thence to wikipedia (god bless wikipedia). 

yesterday was bandcamp friday 

howard's solo album from the wilds of maine seems to have resurfaced. horsemouth recommends you grab this one while you can. it really is very good. 

good morning good morning

it's another beautiful morning out in the wilds. in a bit horsemouth will go out and do the watering. he will probably pick some damsons today (such as are ripe). 

we really are very fortunate to have a bus at all

a whole day of back and fore with the doctors

horsemouth emailed in a photo of his mum's injury and they reckoned it was a side-effect of the medication to bruise so badly so horsemouth and his mum didn't have to try getting to ewyas harold on the non-existent 1520 bus or back from ewyas harold on the non-existent post 1720 return service. 

nor did horsemouth and his mum have to phone around and beg a lift from friends (which is what it would need really).  

so let's get this straight 

last bus into ewyas harold (with a bus back later)  is;

1306 mondays, thursdays, fridays (the good days), 

1120 on a saturday, 

and 0920 on a tuesdays and wednesdays (the bad days).

sundays (and beware bank holidays) nothing nothing nothing. 

without the timetable in front of you you really don't stand much of a chance of working these things out. 

and yet (as the neighbour at the crossroads said) we really are very fortunate to have a bus at all. 

when the night buses come

they may be about to run night buses (i.e. buses after 1830 of an evening) at  2030 and 2230 from hereford to pontrilas but that doesn't mean there will be a connecting service running up to abbeydore (looks like horsemouth will be walking back across the common). 

you see for horsemouth it is not a problem - he can walk. for his mother (in the absence of a local cab and the community taxi needing to be booked in advance) as soon as there is any kind of emergency transport is a problem. 

and there's no sign yet of the hereford buses dropping from £3 each way to £2 each way - they are welsh buses and thus not subject to andy burnham's fiat. if horsemouth were in wales he would already have free bus travel but as it stands he will have to wait until 67. 

earlier on in the day 

horsemouth walked into ewyas harold and picked up his mum's prescription, checked out the volunteer run library (thursdays), and shopped for one or two items. the river is very low but someone is getting some giant LEGO style flood defences installed. 

and then he walked back. 

he probably needs to pick up some more bread and some more beer at some point. 

he's also been digging around and weeding in the garden. this means he has accidentally harvested some onions and some beetroot. the onions are tiny (shallot sized) - he blames limitations on the watering. they pretty much ate those last night (and very nice they were too). 

he thinks some secondary planting for an autumn harvest might be possible (or even necessary). 

it's a cold, coolish, autumnal morning but really we are still in the middle of a drought and a heat wave. even out here temperatures up to 30 and bottoming out at 24, some rain (but not nearly enough). 

today he will re-record his reading of chapter 5 for the far future village band project. it is bandcamp friday. 

and where are we with ourselves?

where are we with kilvert in the year 1872?

yesterday he returned to clyro. rain poured all day. he missed the midday train from hereford (as usual).

'I dined at the vicarage and received a present of a magnificent writing desk, which I am writing upon now, the most beautiful and perfect I ever saw, of coromandel wood bound with brass, fitted with polished mahogany and containing two most secret drawers.' 

today the venables, his employers, move to llysdinam. his replacement is booked in. all that remains for him to do is to work out his contract and then leave. september 2nd 1972 he will himself move away. 

and where are we with ourselves? 

well horsemouth lost his temper in the morning and he just lost it again in the evening. rather a few more things are dead in the garden or the greenhouse than he realised. the odd plant unnecessarily butchered for no good reason that he can see. 

but that's not the real reason. his essential dilemma is unresolved. the thing he needs to fix is not his to fix (within the conditions as currently set). 

ah. the conditions as currently set. (horsemouth fantasises wiggle room). 

in between there were some constructive and positive moments. when horsemouth was supportive and helpful. hopefully he can do more of those today.

today

well he's up. he's fed the chickens. the bin men have been (hopefully he put out the right bin). in a bit a journey down the drive to recover the said bin. perhaps later a journey into the village to pick up the prescription and the hereford times.