'letters written during a short residence'

broadly two weeks to the solstice. horsemouth who works autumn equinox to winter solstice, then roughly groundhog day to spring solstice, then has a three week break and then serves out his time variously (normally finishing before the summer solstice), is watching the galactic clock. he has been accused of wishing time away and there is some truth in this. frankly he’s a little knackered and could do with getting the year gone.

next year (from january - well february really) horsemouth has little idea of what he is doing - a large chunk of his beachside donkey portage work has had the timetabling centralised - resulting in the usual chaos.

next season (september onwards), it may be even more difficult again. non-medical helpers may no longer be required at the beach (or may have to be paid for by the beach authorities - horsemouth is unclear). the health and education benefits of beachside donkey rides are no longer appreciated - horsemouth (and his fellow mules) may be replaced by a small train. frankly horsemouth still believes in the quality of the service (compared to its steam powered alternative) but it’s a difficult argument to make in this day and age (when everything else has gone over to steam within horsemouth’s lifetime).

it has been a good corner - horsemouth expects it to stagger onwards for a while yet (if only while they get the track laid). he may approach the various beaches for work with a hand-typed begging letter, or maybe some agencies. there may be some pensioning off of clapped out old donkeys to be had - maybe a field with green grass to run and play in and a moth eaten blanket in winter. or they may just take them out behind the bike sheds and shoot them - who knows.

yesterday he went out with john clarkson - first for a pie n’ mash in greenwich (horsemouth has lived long enough to see vegetarian pie and mash), then for a perambulate round the second hand bookshops of the area (he has discovered one that is nearly a match for halcyonandon) and then up to vinyl deptford for coffee and cake (and a bottle of beer) and to hear dave webb play.

dave’s set had a musique concrete quality caused by the grainy-ness of his sampling keyboard and the lack of easy editing that the looper pedal provides - still good crunch stuff. the next guy up (justin paton) played an old school acid house set (tb303 a-like, flanger pedal etc, nothing you haven’t heard before but nicely done, tight, on the money, a recording exists of justin’s performance http://beautyanddisgust.bandcamp.com/....
mary wollstonecraft was influenced by rousseau’s reveries of a solitary walker (the most charming of his books largely because he claims to be disillusioned and not to care anymore).