'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:

a good year for the onions

'this government has received serious scientific, intelligence and policy advice that it should take significant action on food security, but it keeps signalling all is OK. it’s not,' 

- tim lang, a professor emeritus of food policy at city st. george’s, university of london.

horsemouth, whose avowed strategy is to move to the hills and grow potatoes, should probably heed the warning. 

the problem is growing more potatoes would mean digging up more land (which is hard work). last year he grew more potatoes but they didn't get eaten so he's not that bothered about growing them this year. if there are any, good, if not, no worries.  similarly with the marrows. 

on the other hand solid progress was made with the runner beans. there are damsons. there are cherries. there's rhubarb. the spinach has come back strong.

this year looks like being a good year for the onions. fingers crossed for the tomatoes and beetroot. 

yesterday morning at 10am - a zoom call with howard. 

future recording

horsemouth mentioned the far future village band project and showed howard the cassette recorder he had recovered from the garage (and mentioned his plans to record with it). howard is on the look out for a zoom multitrack recorder for him (which would be the next stage in the recording campaign).

morning

it's a cooler morning out in the wild (horsemouth misses the heat). he is still in shorts but he is now wearing more than one layer (a t-shirt and a shirt). it has clouded over.  

live at the village vanguard again (again)

this might all be a bit cryptic (but)

meanwhile at the end of the week the final roll of the dice on the project. 

horsemouth feels bad. he encouraged people to go off and do loads of work to try and make something happen (based only on an assurance that it should be possible). 

if it can't be made to happen that just means it has to be done over a longer period of time and entirely with people's 'own' money. frankly this timescale might suit people better. 

there. horsemouth hopes that while that was cryptic that was clear - that you can participate in his feelings and thoughts around the project even  though he can't tell you what the project is. 

musical endeavours

meanwhile  horsemouth awaits with anticipation the next instalment of the far future village band (possibly featuring horsemouth's french cousin mâchoire d'âne aka. jawbone of an ass).  

a taster track has already 'dropped' (horsemouth believes the phrase is) as have some band photos (though not all of the band photos apparently). 

it's the 60ieth anniversary of the recording of live at the village vanguard again.

it opens with a great statement of the theme from naima and then it's off where it's going to go with john, alice, pharoah, rashied ali and jimmy garrison (emanuel rahim may be on it horsemouth can't tell). then a full six minute ten second double bass solo by jimmy garrison before my favourite things (though it's nearly 3 minutes before the theme becomes recognisable). 

yet another beautiful morning in the wilds

and horsemouth has his coffee. he has been out to feed the chickens. 

hopefully today will be a bit cooler. yesterday was a bit punishing during the limited periods horsemouth was out in the heat. the forecast says today the last truly hot day (for a while) and possibly cloudy. in the night a thunder storm.  

this morning at 10am - a zoom call with howard.