SOND - the 'embers' (the fall of another year) and after that the 'u-aries'

'immense depths of thought in expressions of common speech; holes dug by generations of ants.' - squibs I, baudelaire from intimate journals.

and so here we are. horsemouth is in his bed (he's sitting up in bed). outside there is glorious golden light coming from leyton (and probably leytonstone beyond it). he has his coffee but he will need to recharge his cup after this sentence. 

cup recharged.

well it looks like september in the city will be glorious. 

this is by way of consolation for upcoming winter (SOND - september, october, november, december, the 'embers' and after that the 'u-aries'). but for now september doesn't belong to it - it belongs more properly to the summer. temperatures edging up to 30C, the young ladies wandering around in appropriate clothing (pardon horsemouth he's a filthy old letch). 

yesterday afternoon horsemouth sat outside in the shade and read for a bit (j.m. coetzee's waiting for the barbarians - an uncharacteristic work because it's not ostensibly about being a writer). the spine on horsemouth's king penguin edition (so probably a slim 'b' edition) is broken and the textblock has fractured into sectors held together by dried glue so that he has to be careful not to spill out the blocks of pages. that said his reading of it goes well (p.41). 

in theory coetzee's book lifts something of zbigniew herbert's report from the besieged city (nope horsemouth has got that wrong, it is in fact based of cavafy's waiting for the barbarians, but the sentiment is similar).

'too old to carry arms and fight like the others- 

they graciously gave me the inferior role of chronicler'

later horsemouth was in victoria park to see enza. they sat out in the golden sunlight and talked. they drank some italian non-alcoholic drink that tasted of almonds (it being a work night), horsemouth failed to catch the name of it. horsemouth had brought tangerines but they didn't go well with it. eventually (growing cold) they set off for a walk managing a half-circuit before the locking up of the gates chucked them out onto the side streets. 

horsemouth is planning out his activities for the week. minty is off for a number of early morning excursions (going for a wander before the day warms up too much).  horsemouth would like to join up but that means addressing it early doors. he has some meetings he must attend on zoom.  thursday he goes to meet colin. friday he has a choice to make. saturday howard comes to visit.