the murder of cwmgwanon wood

'the cwmgwanon wood is being murdered. as I walked along the edge of the beautiful dingle and looked sadly down into the hollow, numbers of my old friends of seven years standing lay below on both banks of the brook prostrated and mutilated, a mournful scene of havoc, the road almost impassible for the limbs of the fallen giants.'  kilvert on this day in 1872. 

'the woods are to be felled to pay for de winton's gambling debts...'  kilvert noted in his diary on the 3rd of february. some see this as a decisive moment for kilvert that encouraged him to resign his curacy and move away. 

here in the wood on the way to the common a few trees have fallen over, uprooted, felled by winter winds and rain, the whole wood on the hill above the house just grew on the ruins of an old military base and in that wood many trees have fallen over or branches been snapped off.  

more railway stations

one thing that would improve horsemouth's life out here is more railway stations. in particular one at pontrilas (er. golden valley parkway).  at the moment the combined bus fares into hereford are about £8 (return) and your last bus back is at about 6.30 or so at night. this is a severe discouragement from visiting the town (given the relative paucity of the second hand book shopping). 

that said he's not averse to the opening up of other lines into herefordshire. at the moment herefordshire has 4 railway stations covering its entire breadth - hereford, leominster, ledbury, and colwall. it used to have 55.

in competition (in some ways) with the re-opening of pontrilas railway station is the re-opening of the hereford-ross-gloucester railway (with a stop at tintern which would be most useful for tourists going to the abbey.  this is a mere 22 mile stretch. 

similarly reopening bromyard station would be good as well (as would a line to hay-on-wye). 

in wales, and around cardiff in particular, the trains are going great guns. 

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horsemouth was a bit grumpy. he went out and attempted the job his mum suddenly marched off and attempted to do earlier. he has been told he shouldn't do another job (and this has pissed him off big time). 

ok it is the evening and he is beginning to be able to be philosophical about it.  

he's enjoying the above track trans love airways from don cherry's relativity. 

it's a misty morning. the sun a white disk in the grey murk. getting bigger. 

the sweet influences of the pleiades

'.. the quick lights of the stars and the bands of orion, the sweet influences of the pleiades and arcturus with his sons.'  - kilvert, diaries, on this night 1872. 

the pleiades, the seven sisters, used by ancient greek navigators for navigations and later the inspiration for the subaru logo.

today the death of jackson c. frank and the birth of arthur machen. 

kilvert goes for supper at the castle. 

how does horsemouth feel about iran?

well after ukraine, afghanistan, palestine, iraq, sudan, syria, libya, tunisia, egypt, lebanon, various attempts to form a kurdish state etc. he does not feel optimistic. whoever takes the west for an ally embraces a viper.  it could all go to hell in a handcart for 90 million people in a matter of weeks. horsemouth's general advice is to flee rather than stay and fight. he has little feeling for the nation state. 

if the west was so keen on democracy in iran it could have left mossadegh in place (but no - what was valuable to the west then was control of oil and gas production. horsemouth has no idea what they are up to now - and he suspects neither do they). 

horsemouth promulgates machiavelli's advice about the need to avoid foreign wars (and mercenaries) and to take care of one's own population first. this is essentially the MAGA position which trump is betraying right now by this war. (unless like venezuela it is just a robbery and kidnapping). 

oh dear the milkman has knocked over a bit of the patio wall (and left a note apologising). last night another episode of little prophets (which horsemouth is enjoying enormously). horsemouth is trying to move his waking up in the direction of 7am so that it will be 8am when the clocks go forward. 

everything is cracking up

'the point is,' said anna, 'as far as I can see everything is cracking up.' 

- doris lessing, the golden notebook, second sentence. 

horsemouth tells a lie 

the WIRE review of 2024 does contain an album he recognises wadada leo smith and amina claudine myers central park's mosaics...  but he swears down this is the only one. 

on this day in 1872 kilvert's got mail 'a letter from mr. venables with an account of their doings in london...' 

at the end of the week a bandcamp friday and the 10th anniversary of horsemouth's first mixcloud mix. 

in a bit horsemouth will go out again and dig up earth and fling it in to boxes (hopefully he will remember to chuck the muck in first to fertilise next year's growth). 

he has potted up the runner beans from his uncle (now to see if they come up).

saturday horsemouth watched the 1967 french version of the invention of morel  by adolfo bioy casares. it's quite a sad tale really. our castaway is watching the bourgeois in their house in their time on a loop and  by dint of careful practice (and at great personal risk) he can insert himself into it as if he had been there for real. he sets the machines to record again and inserts himself into the action aware that this will lead to his death but also his everlasting life as the machines play the loop of life in the house on repeat. 

there is the italian 1974 film version with anna karina in the role of faustine. (horsemouth has watched this one as well, but a long time ago).  

horsemouth has started on the portable hannah arendt wuth peter baehr's editors introduction. he had earlier dived in to her conversation with gunter graus (oct. 28th 1964) but has backed up to try to get an overview. 

today a grey day. tomorrow possibly some sun. we are at 11 hours of daylight. 

unceasing wonders (jackson c. frank)

'the news from other countries might just as well be from other planets, so far away did they seem now...'  - doris lessing, memoirs of a survivor. 

in kilvert land (1872) queen victoria has been attacked in buckingham palace by arthur o'connor.

here (in the wilds) an entirely written in the morning blogpost.

last night, before he fell asleep, horsemouth was reading the WIRE review of 2024 and in particular their archive/ re-released category. as usual, of their many records, he only recognised a few. 

at number one there's alice coltrane's the carnegie hall concert from 1971 (hail alice, in what was the year of alice). 

at number five there's emahoy tsege mariam gebru's souvenirs,  at fifteen a creation rebel compilation, at twenty seven nusrat fateh ali khan's chain of light  and at forty-eight dorothy ashby's afro-harping. broadcast get two look ins. 

in terms of new music there is literally nothing he knows.

march begins  

'shipwreck everywhere' cheerfully remarks the triple negative calendar (in a lift from petronius' satyricon).

it is another month with a friday the 13th. (though after this there will not be another visitation until november). there will be a bandcamp friday.  

a solid day for horsemouth yesterday. he mucked out the henshed. he walked into ewyas harold across the common (and didn't fall over) for the hereford times. he changed the battery in a clock and got it started again. he started on filling the new raised beds. more on that today. 

so far a dry morning but the weather forecast predicts off and on drizzle (and a surprisingly decent week thereafter).

tomorrow, his diary has reminded him, one of the two jackson c. frank days. tomorrow is the anniversary of his birth. the day after will be the anniversary of his death. here he is from later on in his life. you can hear his ragged breathing. 

books, films, gigs, events february 2026

books 

- the portable hannah arendt (borrowed, tbc)

- the memoirs of a survivor (doris lessing)

- diaries (kilvert et al.)

- bride michael in the stories of robert blythe

- station eleven (emily st. john mandel)

- carmilla (j.sheridan le fanu)

- LA review of books (towards a just and sustainable energy transition, gregory ain and his park planned homes in altadena, LA fires)

- practicalities by marguerite duras (dips)

- new left review, LRB 

films 

- roger barnes, winter work, more on his house 

- the maurice glasman interviewed by ash sarkar

- small prophets (tv series) 

- benico del toro's the wolfman

- the opening clip from lucio fulci's the black cat

- bookpilled, outlaw bookseller, 

gigs online  dave webb technodub show 

events

visit to the wen

visit to TATE and tate modern (english heritage: humpty fucking dumpty by bill woodrow (1987), the artists international association and peter lazlo peri), máret ánne sara. crossbones. 

visits TG, enza, dave and claudia, paul clark and toni, tour of high barnet, rust and masumi (and friends), minty and jacqueline, book tour, howard, william morris gallery, ian and the old homestead. 

gorton and denton by-election (greens win it!)

a. fahey is born (the great globe itself...)

'the cloud-capp'd towers, 

the gorgeous palaces, 

the solemn temples, 

the great globe itself...'  

- william shakespeare 

the tempest, act 4 scene 1 

horsemouth is back in the wild 

(courtesy of a lift from his brother). 

in a bit he will go and feed the chickens. he will muck them out/ go and get the hereford times from the village/ maybe wander the eggs up the hill (we shall see). 

the recycling bin is full apparently (horsemouth may have to squish it down a bit). 

all the usual duties and tasks. 

meanwhile the new raised beds have been built and horsemouth should get on with populating them with earth (and compost) and get on with potting stuff up in the greenhouse. 

weatherwise today doesn't look too bad (sunday, monday etc. look like stinkers). 

the black cat was just visiting.

gorton and denton analysed

turnout: 

47.62% of registered electorate. so lower than the 60% turnout in the general election of 2024 - itself the lowest turnout since 2001 but not atypical for an ordinary by-election. horsemouth thinks this shows a low level of political engagement by the people. 

now given how this political situation is being talked up by the commentariat horsemouth finds this low level of participation paradoxical. 

a. fahey is born

john aloysius fahey will be born this day in 1939. fahey week is over. there's much more of horsemouth's writings on fahey in previous years. 

robbie basho will die this day in 1986 (it is the 40ieth anniversary of his death). 

'our revels now are ended'

 'what kind of being would chose impersonation as a means of securing any advantage...' 

- bert o. states, great reckonings in little rooms: on the phenomenology of theater.

fahey (of course) initially tried impersonation both as blind thomas and as blind joe death. he also, probably, attempted various other impersonations on 'his own' recordings. but then he abandoned it for his own name.

similarly robbie basho is a stage name (lifted from the japanese poet matsuo bashō).

leo kottke - that's his 'real' name. 

later stefan basho-junghans will further complicate the pattern.

horsemouth's visit is now done

'our revels now are ended'

there just remains the little matter of getting to the railway station and getting the train back (and getting a lift or bus(es) back out into the wild definitive). his brother has offered a lift (it would seem churlish not to take him up on the offer). 

yesterday (a busy day)

in the morning a walk in the marshes  with TG (coffee and cake).

lunch a fried egg sandwich with sally. 

in the afternoon assembling enza's hifi and computer set up. some singing of old PPE repertoire (with horsemouth playing enza's left-handed guitar). 

in the evening chilli, wine and song round at dave and claudia's. horsemouth frowned as he struggled to remember his repertoire but then there were lots of songs out of song books too ('the neighbours are gonna hate you' advised the children). 

the gorton and denton result is in

and the greens have won it. horsemouth wont pretend he isn't glad that reform lost. in some ways this will be perceived as breaking the momentum of the reform wave but in fact doesn't, nonetheless it's good news.