'nothing last as long as a good temporary solution...'

on this day in 1872 kilvert is in the gower but plommer (his editor) has not left us a diary entry for this day. kilvert will return to clyro tomorrow probably using the reverse route to the one he used to get there, using railway lines no longer in existence.

last night horsemouth read a little of italo svevo's a life (poor clerk trapped in boring job and straightened circumstances). 

horsemouth's enthusiasm for local politics is somewhat dented. he has realised it is a long time until he gets to exercise his democratic prerogative. 

'this year is what's known as a fallow year for herefordshire council, which means we don't have any scheduled full term local government elections taking place on 7 may 2026.

(there may, however, be by-elections)

this is part of the normal local election cycle. we elect all of our councillors every four years. our next scheduled polls are due to take place on 6 may 2027.'

ok and then horsemouth has to wait until august 2029 (probably) for his next slice of general election democracy action.

yesterday morning he heard the bells from the abbey while he was having a quick dig in the old garden. this made him feel slightly sad because he should be ringing the bells to get in his practice but he finds the abbey bells a bit scary. 

yesterday a walk on the common (usual route).

howard went for a wander round the olympic park (including a visit to the new V&A). there, what should he find, but a poster for the hackney homeless festival. 

here's the festival booklet.

horsemouth's band were about then but they didn't play (this was a bad move on their part). back to the planet, RDF, the rhythmites, the sea, the tofu love frogs, anorak lovechild, the co-creators, one style MDV, that's probably the cream of that crusty scene. 

ah the levellers were there as well. only senser are missing (unless of course you know different). 

horsemouth was there (er. in the audience), everyone he knew was there (probably), he remembers sussanah being there (so probably billy and that lot). 

frankly, given the state of his memory, all the rest of it is a blur. 

apparently it's on as part of tom hunter selects.

meanwhile in the wen the homeless and the renters march including the E15 mum's campaign (respect due). 

today a beautiful morning in the wilds. later a walk. 

everything in print

18th april 1872 and kilvert is still on holiday in the gower. he's off to the mumbles.

'a tramway runs along the roadside from swansea to the mumbles, upon which ply railway carriages drawn by horses.

oystermouth castle stands nobly upon a hill overlooking the town and bay. the lurid copper smoke hung in a dense cloud over swansea, and the great fleet of oyster boats under the cliff was heaving in the greenest sea I ever saw...' 

'I read. it is like a disease, I read everything that comes to hand, everything that meets my glance: newspapers, schoolbooks, bits of paper found in the street, recipes, children's books. everything in print.'

- from the illiterate by Ágota kristóf, describing her childhood in hungary.

horsemouth read the notebook by her a long time ago. and yesterday he read an article on her in the LRB and a few other things he found on google books.  she learned to speak french and then read french later in life (this is why she is the illiterate) and then began to write in it (like e.m.cioran, like milan kundera, like samuel beckett). 

she was another writer who burned their diaries. 

it's still a bit cold in the mornings and overnight. this is making horsemouth hesitant about planting out the runner beans (he's got the bamboo frame for them in already). the overnight temperatures are staying low all week. 

firedamp

17th april 1872 kilvert is on holiday in the gower.

'as we lay on the high cliff moor above oxwich bay sheltered by some gorse bushes there was no sound except the light surges of the sea beneath us and the sighing of the wind through the gorse and dry heather.'

meanwhile,  the same day, at nearby killay  there is a coal mining accident. two men and a pony are drowned when a section of the pit floods and third man, a rescuer, is hideously burnt when his unshielded lamp explodes some firedamp. 

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we move towards the may 7th elections

voters in scotland and wales will elect representatives to their national parliaments. 

a number of local council and mayoral polls will take place in england.

in northern ireland, local council and assembly elections are not scheduled until may 2027.

reform can be expected to do well in wales because it is not first passed the post but proportional representation - the caerphilly defence of voting to keep reform out will not work. similarly for the greens (and indeed your party should they actually run any candidates) they should do well and achieve fair representation.

scotland MSPs are election on an additional member system (broadly designed to produce proportional representation). 

elsewhere it is first passed the post and this, together with more than 2 plausible parties,  can result in distortions (horsemouth recommends the gallagher index to measure these). 

the problem in many seats is working out who the keep reform out party are. in the caerphilly by election (conducted under first passed the post) it was clearly plaid cymru. who it will be in council elections up and down the land is not clear. 

and then that's our lot. that's all our supply of democracy until the next general election which must be held by 15th august 2029. the prime minister has the power to dissolve parliament and call it earlier (but then neither he nor his successor has any real reason to).

 it is the collapse of horsemouth's belief in radical or protest politics that leads him to electoral politics. 

but he doesn't really believe in that either. 

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today it looks like rain (according to the weather forecast). the weekend and next week look pretty decent. 

last night a decent bell-ringing. horsemouth needs to work on understanding called changes. he's chasing after plain hunt but maybe he needs to build his skills first. he needs to remember to change on the handstroke not the backstroke.

sweetpeas and nasturtiums (penmayne and kilvrough)

16th april 1872 and kilvert is on holiday in the gower penninsula.

he visits some (presumably neolithic) tombs between penmayne (in kilvert's somewhat archaic non-welsh spelling) and kilvrough.

yesterday horsemouth went for a wander on the common 

(the usual round probably about a mile or so). 

he suspects he may have to do it several times over the course of the day. he was preparing for a meeting and he wanted to be as calm and as easy going as it is possible for him to be. 

he also had an egg delivery mission. 

however he doesn't want to ask about the eggs in case that is the wrong thing to do, he thinks he'd rather wait until the eggs are offered.  as he looks out of the window his mum is pulling some rhubarb. 

horsemouth has put some pepper seeds and some basil seeds in a tray in the greenhouse. he doubts it is warm enough yet for them to get going but he will see. otherwise the runner beans continue to grow well - horsemouth will plant them out after sunday (when the weather has warmed up). the broad beans look to be on the go. otherwise no sign of anything else particularly.

the onion bulbs have arrived so horsemouth will get those planted out this afternoon (or it might be an idea to get it done now before it starts raining again). anyway they are done now (now to see if they come up). 

flowers wise - some sweet peas and nasturtiums are on the go.  

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meanwhile horsemouth attended the meeting he was going to attend. 

it went well. the vote went the way horsemouth hoped it would. he was reminded of why he doesn't like those meetings (he doesn't like the people). 

ok to be fair he does like some of the people (just the ones he doesn't like he really doesn't like). 

he supposes he should chill out with it. as work it's done. he can let it go and move on. the meeting worked well in itself (the people worked well together). the pains-in-the-arse are no longer his pains-in-the-arse. 

it is an interesting problem though. previously the co-op's involvement with the members domestic arrangements was limited to their rent. now the co-op will (probably) have to encourage the members to ask the power companies for smart meters (horsemouth expects some resistance there). perhaps the smart meter wars have been won. 

a railway journey (and a decision)

kilvert is on holiday in the gower until the 20th. (he will return to clyro and snow). 

on this day in 1872 kilvert is making the railway journey down there. 

'monday 15th april (1872). from clyro to ilston rectory...

waiting an hour and a half at llechrhyd, reading faust on the lower platform...

westhorp was waiting for me at killay station...'

kilvert will have used the hereford, hay and brecon railway. changing at three cocks junction for the up train to llechrhyd and then (presumably) changing platforms for the train to killay on the llanelly railway. 

for the hay to llechrhyd journey AI tells horsemouth he can use the national rail journey planner (sadly not - pretty much all these train lines and train stations are passed and gone). 

to make the equivalent journey today horsemouth would need to take a bus (two buses in fact) into hereford or abergavenny and then by train to newport and then across to swansea and then on by bus he guesses (yes. 28 minute journey, four buses an hour, £3). 

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oh dear. horsemouth has consented to go to a meeting (he's getting annoyed and anxious about it already).  

the issue is simple 

to go ahead or not to go ahead. 

to take the money offered or not to take the money offered. 

he has been for a walk to clear his head (and his head is somewhat cleared). this probably won't last. 

horsemouth has missed alula down in malvern for record store day this year (damn drat and blast).  his head was not in the game. 

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ah! bless you archive .org

ronald blythe's collection of diary entries from various diarists. 

'although they are the most private form of writing, there have been few diarists who have not in their heart and hearts hoped that their daily confidences would be read by other eyes.  philip larkin's order  to burn his diary  after his death was a most unusual one...' 

ok look. there was also kafka (it's just that brod disobeyed). 

this anthology contains examples from eighty diaries: the diarist as eye-witness; the diarist in love; the diarist as naturalist; the diarist at war; the diarist as artist; (etc.). all these are good sub-headings. horsemouth may make use of them at a later date. 

the torch trees of paradise (east of the strait of hormuz)

'the blossoming fruit trees, the torch trees of paradise blazed with a transparent green and white lustre up the dingle in the setting sunlight. the village is in a blaze of fruit blossom. clyro is at its loveliest. what more can be said?' 

- the reverend kilvert on this day in 1872. 

in the morning a walk into ewyas harold to post a letter and to buy some coffee (about 1 mile there and 1 mile back). his mum thinks there is some advantage in buying 1st class stamps before the price goes up but horsemouth thinks the price has gone up already (though, of course, it will go up again at some point). 

thereafter some more gardening (planting two rows of carrots) and some reading. 

what is in the news? 

the strait of hormuz - so the US navy will now be blocading the easy bit, east of the strait of hormuz. the ships of world powers (china, russia) will probably get a pass (being too much trouble to stop), the ships of smaller countries will probably get boarded and impounded. 

quite how this is supposed to free up the world supply of oil is anybody's guess. horsemouth just thinks it is designed to produce fluctuations in the price of oil that can be bet upon by the super-rich producing super-profits. 

the driving up of the price of oil and fertiliser will drive hundreds of millions down into poverty (and possibly millions to famine and death).

what horsemouth really wants to talk about is axel rudakubana. yet he is hesitant because he knows it is a dangerous 'hot' topic. 

you may think rudakubana is just evil - the question then is how all the state agencies involved failed to stop him before the attack happened. 

to horsemouth there are unexamined facets to the story. 

as a kid axel was in a children in need advert (horsemouth thinks he's got that right - yes he starred as dr.who in an advert that has since been taken down by the bbc). this work he got through a casting agency. that's got to have been pretty cool for a youngster. pretty important. 

a brief moment of light. 

maybe it stirred up jealousy. maybe it started the bullying.

later we have him taking knives to school (allegedly to deal with bullies) and being referred to prevent three times. we have him arrested by the police on a bus in possession of knives (but not charged). we have it taking the best part of a year and a half for his autism diagnosis to come through. we have him spending the best part of two years in his room, ordering weapons off the internet and terrorising his family. we have him released from mental health care 6 days before the attack being classified as not a risk.

even the cab driver thought he was a wrong'un but dropped him off anyway. 

and so despite many failures of state intervention it is all his family's fault and all his fault and all the fault of the police, the local authority, the education authority, the local mental health services. 

is it worth mentioning that all these bodies are under-resourced. struggling with cuts. probably not. 

(hell chuck the cab driver on the pile as well). 

prevent particularly irk horsemouth - rudakubana was referred to them three times but they did not intervene because he was not ideological. he was later pronounced not mentally ill (so it was not mental health's job either). 

like grenfell we have an orgy of buck passing and so many institutional failures by people with letters after their name who were being paid to care. so much so it will be difficult to prove any criminal responsibility. 

song of solomon 2:12

 'the time of the singing of birds had come'  quotation from kilvert's diary this day in 1872.

in this he echoes the song of solomon 'the flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land' (song of solomon 2:12). here the turtle is (of course) the turtledove (unless you are john fahey).

here in the wilds the weather is a bit more equivocal. (frost this morning)

the anniversary of a waterintobeer musicians of bremen gig in 2019

horsemouth will dig up more details (and maybe even a photo).

'setlist... - satan (gospel blues), the werewolf (michael hurley), the devil, worldes blisse, when the faun met alice (musicians of bremen - you may know these from horsemouth’s solo set last time), painbirds (mark linkous - sparklehorse) he played last time also. they revived sad and lonely and dorothy.  new to the set this time a version of blue crystal fire (robbie basho) and katie cruel (trad. karen dalton), lastly they took a crack at keith hudson’s turn your heater on...'

nick doyne-ditmas played. martin howard’s set included a song about the tasmanian tiger. 

horsemouth is lucky he recorded this information. it dates back to before he blogged everyday (well ok he was blogging every day on facebook but that's semi-hidden behind some resource saving tool). he didn't start blogging every day on blogger until september 2020. 

'visual poetry, poetic visions, action music and musical actions, happenings and events...'  

- dick higgins (member of fluxus)

yesterday horsemouth read parts of american avant-garde theatre by arnold aronson. he started on page 162 with the bits about fluxus (because he'd read about fluxus before) and then read the chapter on performance art as a whole. he is gradually expanding out to the point where he can claim to have read the entire book. 

this morning a frost (to quote the ruts 'it was cold in the night') but beautiful sunshine also. for horsemouth a trip into the village to buy coffee and to post a letter.