the evening routine of a slow living minimalist (grand designs)

so horsemouth is back at his parents. he just went up on the common to get his mum some holly with berries (for some reason there's not a lot of it about) and then he was out hauling logs for his dad (well actually his dad (80 something) did the hauling, horsemouth did the loading and the making sure the logs didn't fall off the sled while they were being hauled up the incline (by his dad). 

horsemouth's parents read the torygaph (just to be clear they are tories and brexiteers). there was no torygraph today so his dad got the grauniad instead). there was a piece on self-build in the saturday torygraph (of the we pay builders/ grand designs type). it featured a number of self-builders including bryony harrington (of the right to build task force - a government funded team aiming 'to help local authorities make self-build more accessible'). 

apparently 13000 homes a year are delivered in the UK by  custom build, in germany it is over half. (like horsemouth says this is more the 'grand designs' end of it).

of course it has not been plain-sailing for bryony - covid was followed by vast increases in the cost of materials and builders, by with supply chain - 'rising costs are making many self-build schemes less viable' says ms. summercastle of the greater manchester community led housing hub (and another self-builder).

horsemouth recently saw some people go up to get their award at a housing conference for having successfully completed and moved into  their eco/ self-build/ community land trust housing -  wonderful (but it had taken them 7 years).  

in the evening he was just watching some dude advocating for slow-living (the evening routine of a slow living minimalist - youtube) and before that some bitch wandering round a forest with new age music going on while she talked about 'escaping hustle culture'). the dude was particularly keen to  talk about his evening 'wind down' routine.

now evenings are a very good time for horsemouth. he has done what he was going to do in the day (if anything) and his time is now his own (doubly so in fact). he can get on with things without having to worry about getting on with them.

still horsemouth doesn't want to type too much now. he wants to leave something for him to do in the morning

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it's the morning already. horsemouth finds himself with not very much to say. mornings are a good time for him (coffee, blogging, weather report, breakfast, on to the business of the day). tuesday the 13th - the RMT strike begins (horsemouth's reason for being out of town so early and thus for having missed the snowfall).

john has been in touch. he'll be in london for the new year. en za left a message,   .