yet another imaginary conversation rendered null and void

a discussion of communal living

'the percentage of americans living in nuclear family households has declined significantly since 1970...'

but of course there is a huge economic factor with this. 

horsemouth is no longer living communally. rather than experience it as great and beautiful he experienced it as conflict. conflict over access to the living room, over using the front garden as a waste dump, over using the back garden as a waste dump. 

to be fair whenever he shared he felt these kind of stresses. and whenever he lived on his own he felt different social stresses.

beyond that there was the wider co-op which seemed to contain the absolutely average number of selfish and unpleasant people.  similarly when he worked. 

horsemouth was very grateful to the people who were active in the co-op and to the co-op's existence for housing him at a point when he was in great housing difficulty. he thinks it is a beautiful thing (except in its actuality). similarly for the work that fed him (except for day to day). 

the truth, horsemouth supposes, is that he is a grumpy bastard. 

and yet he misses the co-operative. there was a potential to do good there. 

this is yet another imaginary conversation rendered null and void. 

interesting. facebook was down. and then it was back up again. 

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perhaps the whole target of the iran war is not iran but china. china has handled the energy crisis well by using its strategic reserves. but this cannot continue. similarly for the rest of the world. 

the us strategic reserves are stored underground in giant salt caverns - whether these can be just turned on and off without risking their structural integrity could turn out to be a major issue. 

it is one thing to blunder into a stupid war with iran it is another thing to blunder into a stupid war with china. 

a bright morning with an interesting nip in the air. horsemouth thinks more chicken feed this week. 

imaginary conversations rendered null and void ('all three is a...')

kilvert is still back at his father's 

horsemouth is still writing his far future village band stuff but he's waiting for inspiration to strike again. until then he'll grind it out. 

yesterday a walk up the hill to deliver the eggs. on his way back down there was a girl ahead of him. she was just passed the bridge when he turned up the path by the military base.

she did not reappear.  

later a wedding at the abbey (horsemouth was told). there were bells. (they seemed to go on a long time).

the strimming of the chicken enclosure was successful when it was completed the chickens could be released. no chickens were strimmed in the process that's the main thing. 

horsemouth has realised 

that the thing in town he was worried about going to is on next week not the week after - he will therefore not be able to go. at a stroke all his anxieties pop (but also all his possible pleasures too). it would have been a good opportunity to catch up with loads of people (ah well). 

horsemouth can't tell you the number of imaginary conversations that renders null and void. 

later still a walk on the common. lots of people around. (but none of them were walking dogs). it looked pretty much as it looks above (except he didn't go that route). 

later still a zoom beer with howard. 

sculptures. erm...erm... pachy-o-derm. 'all three is a...'

the sheep are gone again (up the hill).

'age of decline and dissolution...'

'in an age of decline and dissolution, the roman world had shattered like a mask...' 

- lawrence durrell, ceasar's vast ghost. 

and this is horsemouth's view of the future. he thinks things are going to carry on getting worse rather than fall but he thinks eventually it will fall. he thinks the disruptions caused by global warming are on a whole other scale from previous crises. they are literally a global crisis.

in this he is a doomster. 

however, as with the romans, the fall will take centuries. for much of the time the world will appear to be the same but in fact the break up of nation states and power blocks will accelerate. 

the last three tracks on this album were recorded in nice on july 18th 1971 (so 55 years ago to the day) live from the place masséna. it all kicks of round about the 1 hour 14 minutes mark. 

starmer has departed and burnham will soon be in. horsemouth is pessimistic (he does not expect it to make a great deal of difference). burnham has little time to get anything he wants to get done done. soon enough we are back to the electorate (though it will feel like a long time). 

horsemouth was just struggling to feed the chickens while keeping the door to their coop shut. their enclosure is being strimmed, best to keep the chickens out of the way whilst this is going on.

while this post is dated the 17th it was in fact published the morning of the 18th (go figure).  

his busy social whirl begins again

the package has arrived from far off riogordo

contents - CD far future village band III with card cover and photo, handwritten note, chapbook A5 (roughly) card cover 8 pages double stappled featuring 3 case studies of the musicians and 6 photos.

horsemouth pronounces himself delighted. 

 if in doubt try kilvert

'last night the lord stood by me and invited me to drink of the fountain of life freely and I shall stand before the lord as bold as a lion.' - john cennick's aunt on her deathbed, as heard by him aged 9. 

kilvert is in langley burrell. 

yesterday (in 1872) he took his mother to visit the larges who told kilvert about the moravian settlers in east tytherton and the methodist and moravian preacher and hymn writer john cennick. 

here's a photo of their church and a plan of it. 

tomorrow kilvert will observe some haymaking. he will return to clyro on the 5th of august. 

yesterday 

horsemouth went for several walks on the common in the shade (through the woodland - along the side of it as much as possible). he harvested some runner beans (smaller and less stringy this time) and some tomatoes. there are still some broad beans to come (so there will be some for his brother). 

the bell ringing didn't go so well (but on the other hand it wasn't a complete disaster). after that the pub. 

damn he's just remembered he forgot to give sylvia the eggs. (his busy social whirl begins again). 

hmmnn. interesting. chance of rain in the afternoon. 

it is more an idea than a place.

'he advised me to keep a journal of my life, fair and undisguised. he said it would be a very good exercise, and would yield me infinite satisfaction when the ideas were faded from my remembrance.' 

- james boswell's london journal, 16th july 1763. 

'it is more an idea than a place. you will find this out quite soon' 

- local informant in lawrence durrell's ceasar's vast ghost. 

three years ago horsemouth was reading provence in walthamstow (it being more an idea than a place).  

horsemouth has been a bit anxious (not so surprisingly when he thinks about it). 

horsemouth has a visit coming up. it's not when he wanted it to be but at least it is happening. it will enable him to get in a number of social engagements and catch up with people (not everyone but at least some). 

ok. see even writing that down is helping him negotiate with it. 

he has been pleased that he has been writing but he is out of the first wind of it and will have to re-apply himself.  

it's the morning. horsemouth has done the chickens, to his recollection he forgot to take the recycling bin down the hill so it will now be another two weeks before it gets emptied. (pops his head out of the window to check - yes). 

the main water tank on the common is very low - horsemouth will try and excuse himself as much watering as is possible today. 

a mysterious and imprecise word

an almost entirely written the day before blogpost 

a walk on the common 

horsemouth took his camera and was mainly trying to focus on the animals and the abandoned technology. round the outside and then up to the top of the hill and back.

abandoned greenhouse

could be brought back into use horsemouth thinks. he thinks it's at the far end of a garden. 

the field downhill from it has a poly-tunnel anyway. (now a poly tunnel would be a useful thing). horsemouth's mum has two greenhouses but one is now in the shade of a rather large tree and so not much use for actually growing anything.

a mysterious and imprecise word

the 'mysterious and imprecise word that no one could define but which was readily understood by those who experienced it...'  is ballardian. 

you may as well add kafkaesque to that list but you may as well reply 'almost all of them'. in general all words are more difficult to define than people imagine and their meanings seldom stay stable that long.

the narrow road to the deep north

basho entered the city of kanazawa on july the 15th. he met a merchant from osaka. he wrote a memorial poem in praise of the poet issho.

'how beautiful it is

the snow on the ground

and the cloud in the west

that brings more of it.' 

snow seems a bit unlikely at the moment. (horsemouth would settle for rain). 

horsemouth has succeeded in doing something obvious 

hopefully it is the right thing to do. he should probably refuel once he has checked that the air is clear.  it should bring him peace of mind (but of course it doesn't). 

today the eggs (in as sure as eggs is eggs) and the recycling bin down the drive also. horsemouth is up and he has his coffee. it's a cool grey morning (but this means little, yesterday heated up successfully and today is supposed to do that also). 

according to the forecast the weather is consistently sunny and dry through to the 24th (this doesn't bring horsemouth the pleasure he thought it would). 

at least from here on in

 1872 kilvert is in langley having left clyro yesterday. 

okay a mostly written in the morning blogpost (at least from here on in), 

a grey morning and positively cool. horsemouth is wearing two layers (this is unheard of he's spent the last month wandering around in as little as possible). cloud til midday (says the bbc weather).  then bryter later.

at night horsemouth read a little of ceasar's vast ghost (mostly about the campaigns of marius) and then a little of seeing england (antiquarians, travellers and naturalists) which ends with the naturalist gilbert white of selborne in hampshire - horsemouth had been looking for his the natural history of selborne in his dad's collection. it is almost certainly there and almost certainly in a folio edition. anyway there's a few pages at the end of charles lancaster's book. 

the chickens were there to greet horsemouth at the gate this morning (he'd forgotten to lock them up last night). they all seem to be there. a 7am start (not too shabby). 

he probably won't go to abergavenny today. if he's off to the wen in a few weeks he can get his book shopping in then.