how serious is the crisis (and how did we get into this mess)? - seaside towns day three

all well and good. horsemouth has the title. he just had to wait for the day to happen to have the 'content' to back it up. 

following on from st. brigid's eve we have st. brigid's day (and then we will have groundhog day/ candlemas).

seaside towns day three

there was a walk round the park with enza (a catch up but no dinner). it was cold but sunny enough. both pronounced themselves optimistic about the year ahead (and then proceeded to depress each other with the various things the year is likely to contain). 

on the way back horsemouth hit the book boxes - a thriller by desmond bagley from horsemouth's childhood (the spoilers) then book box gold (on roding road) adam tooze's shutdown: how covid shook the world's economy. 

'if one word could sum up the experience of 2020, it would be disbelief.'

covid demonstrated the vast unsuspected powers of the state (ones we had been told no longer existed). we had been told that it was the market that was supernaturally intelligent and was the best allocator of resources but it was bypassed and stood down and a vast state intervention launched instead - the way it always is in fact, the dark secret of neo-liberalism, the prevalence of state aid. 

and yet the covid support measures and its furloughs in particular were a vast hand-over of wealth to the already wealthy (what did you do with your furlough money? you bought food and payed your rent or your mortgage) and that money is now ready to be employed to buy up everything that is for sale (so that it can be rented back to us).  for this reason horsemouth expects house prices to start to drastically rise as soon as interest rates come back down (so that ordinary people can participate in the last fleecing, in hoovering up the last of the stock at vastly inflated prices).

our rulers partied because, as our natural betters, they thought they were immune, but they weren't. (and because of the champagne and the sandwiches from sainsbury's local).

and yet 

how serious is the crisis and how did we get into this mess? asks a podcast on the housing crisis that suggests that the banks buying up housing is a good thing (to increase the supply for rent  you understand). 

horsemouth is a little anxious. he goes to a meeting today and there are two big issues that need to be thought about before they even get onto the decarbonisation thing. he hopes he wakes up early so he can check the emails, drink coffee and eat breakfast before he goes.  

ok let's post it up. 

day two back in the seaside towns

GLC and the 'spoons 

(a match made in heaven)

horsemouth is on his second day back in the seaside towns. 

what has he been up to? well he was up early at 8am and then he went S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G  ladies and gentlemen. he went to aldi (3 miles there and back) to purchase a selection of staples to keep him fed for the next week or so. 

(ok ok he did hit the aldi bookbox - nothing nothing nothing)

he probably has bought too much food and will either have to take some back to herefordshire with him or leave it here as a starter pack for the next visit. 

horsemouth has cooked and eaten some of this already (red kidney bean, onion, chili, tomato and pasta) and he has mopped the kitchen and corridor floor (it all gets a bit mucky when he's not here). he will try and get in a few other cleaning tasks over the next few days. 

in a bit he goes off to andrew minty's. (3 miles there - he may get the bus back). they may even go out for a sneaky pint. 

well he says in a bit. it will be a few hours yet. 

(ok ok the had two pints in the end before minty sensibly called a halt. did they go to a 'spoons? yes they did. and horsemouth walked there and back again - added exercise.)

hereinafter it's wednesday afternoon  (today by the time you read this) a lunchtime wander round the park (with enza maybe - 4 miles there and back).  thursday a meeting (4 miles ditto), a zoom meeting and then in the evening he's off to his brother's for dinner. thereafter he's probably staying sat down and recovering until sunday afternoon (tour of vauxhall). he doesn't want to walk a hole in his foot like he did last time.

wednesday horsemouth will also publish his  books, films, gigs, events list for january 2020(4). 

books (you must understand) is books, newspapers, online newspaper articles, blog posts etc. (basically anything read), films are films, vlogs, youtube clips, podcasts (basically anything watched or listened to), gigs are gigs to which horsemouth physically went to or listened to or watched online, events are just events in the world (or in horsemouth's life). 

he's up. he has his coffee. he thinks he finished off the toast last thing last night so it's museli for breakfast. 

books, films, gigs, events january 2020(4)

books 

- the valleys of the assassins (freya stark)

- alive, alive oh! and other things that matter (diana athill)

- introduction to 'john clare by himself' (eds. eric robinson and david powell), LRB piece 'john clare out of copyright' by simon kövesi 

-  the cleobury mortimer and ditton priors light railway (OPC 1980)

- a quick peek at dumbstruck by steven connor

- torygraph;  an article on yemen, an article on gaza, an article on chicken shit in the wye, an interview with the Qanon shaman, an article on log burning. 

- benefits of handwriting article

- rhiannon giddens at the grammys post

films

- brave new worlds (SF doc.) 1993

- rob the nomad (homelessness and hiking)

- nomadland (I live in a car)

- hawkwinge (space bandits)

- the kids are alt-right 

- the eyes of laura mars (giallo adjacent/ john carpenter script)

- sun tunnels (nancy holt)

- various of howard's 'golden glow' mixes 

- bulletin of the atomic scientists documentary

- lots of nina conti's ventriloquism

- universal clock: the resistance of peter watkins

- postmasters and post mistresses drama (ITV)

- die with zero videos

- 'blue nights' excerpt (joan didion and griffin dunne)

- architect and artist joana astolfi film about the portuguese word “desenrascanço”

-  interview with roland allen author of ‘the notebook: a history of thinking on paper’ 

- thrift a life/ bookpilled, outlaw bookseller, novara media. spain speaks.

- triple negative interviewed

- social housing doc. (tortoise: episode 1)

- junkopia (chris marker et al.)

- skillsbuilder video on banks buying up new homes

- not the finger in the ear show

- walking london's black path

gigs none

events 

ptah the el daoud day, koln concert anniversary, centre point occupation 50ieth anniversary, fish island underwater, death of melanie safka, wolf moon, st. brigid's eve.

a new micro-home and plans to return during the hours of darkness to bolt-cropper off the padlock and move in

horsemouth is back from his first day back in the seaside towns. 

so what did he do? 

he went out for a wander onto the marshes with TG. he found a new micro-home and plans to return during the hours of darkness to bolt-cropper off the padlock and move in. 
 

he's going to a meeting thursday morning (10am) and then diner round at his brother's in the evening. there's probably a gig saturday night and a walkabout sunday afternoon.  minty is around monday to wednesday evenings so horsemouth will try and catch up with him then. wednesday day 2.30-3.30pm  a lunchtime wander round the park (with enza maybe).  

great he's just booked minty in for tonight. 

ok so still plenty of available slots if people want to go out for a wander/ catch up etc. 

his original plan was to walk up and raid the oxfam in walthamstow or even the sally army opposite the william morris museum (and see the exhibit there). but he may have to put that off (too far). similarly he could do with doing a food shop - he's got bread, some rubbish cheese and humous (the marge he has already). last night some pasta, white beans, onion and chilies, tonight hopefully something a bit better. 

he's already taken a peek in the powerscroft road book box (you've let yourselves down people in his absence) and dropped off two donations (down and out in paris and london and bear island). 

so he's had breakfast and coffee - now to face the day. 

'education has spoiled me' ( 'it's fucked. it always is...' )

'I always come to the conclusion that my education has spoiled me more than I can understand'                   - franz kafka, diaries, page 18, line 14, 1910, no date given but after the night of the comets, 17th-18th may. 

Q. 'how is everything coming along in london?'

A.  'ugh. (it's ) fucked. it always is...' - matthew hyland (and anja buchele) interviewed on san onofre (22-XXVI triple negative interviú) 

meanwhile. 

meanwhile horsemouth has returned to the wen and is casting round for people to go and visit. 

he's going to a meeting thursday morning and then diner round at his brother's thursday evening. there's probably a gig saturday night and a walkabout sunday afternoon.  minty is around monday to wednesday evenings so horsemouth will try and catch up with him then. 

it's ok he's booked his first meeting 10am TG the park bench (and then a wander up into walthamstow maybe). he might nip up to check the powerscroft road book box first or he might leave it for another morning. he has his cup of coffee but he doesn't have any readily available breakfast so he'll have to do a wander out anyway. 

candles in the rain

so horsemouth returns to the wen (when? in a few hours). 

he thinks he will be around for a week (possibly two). 

he will endeavour get all his visiting and catching up in. beginning with a womble around with TG on monday (perhaps up to walthamstow in search of books). he brings back unwanted/ duplicate copies of bear island and down and out in paris and london to deposit in the book boxes. (he will endeavour to bring back up more kafka). 

thursday morning he has a meeting and then a zoom meeting. next saturday (the 10th) there is a meeting but horsemouth thinks he cannot attend. 

this is a rare morning written blogspot (so don't expect any genius from him). 

yesterday zoom beers with howard (two each and a quick sing-around of am I born to die?).

horsemouth has skipped to the end of the athill. she is contemplating death. 

'my brother was the only person near me who clearly resented death, and that was because he had achieved a way of life which suited him so perfectly that he wanted more...' 

today (halfway through the day) triple negative will be being interviewed. no gig by them this end of the year (which is a shame). 

'If I had it my way, everything would change' (transcendental blues)

 'in the darkest hour of the longest night

if it was in my power I'd step into the light...'

the cheese is sliding off the cracker (says horsemouth's source in CONUS - the contiguous and continental united states (so not hawaii or alaska  or puerto rico but the 48 states that are touching each other)).

'if I had it my way, everything would change'

it makes no sense to horsemouth. with just a little goodwill all round we could have a so much better world so quickly. 

following nicola sturgeon (the former leader of the SNP)'s candid judgement on boris johnson (quote 'a fucking clown' ) horsemouth has modified an internet meme involving messenger pidgeons (life before the internet) delivering the message. if he swaps the order of the images round it will look like the recipient is sending the message (this may be his next task). 

and other things that matter

'apart from a few setbacks, I have always been lucky all my life...' - diana athill, alive, alive oh!

well it's ptah the el daoud day - the anniversary of the recording (all in one day) of ptah the el daoud by alice coltrane, pharoah sanders, joe henderson, ron carter, and ben riley, up at the coltrane residence in dix hills on this day in 1970. here's a piece on the 2020 anniversary.  alice was struggling for a lot of this period with mourning the death of her husband john coltrane, raising four kids and getting her career going. and yet the music is so strong and so immediately formed. 

last night a wolf moon. (horsemouth couldn't see it but he knew it was there)

it is also the anniversary of the release of another golden glow mix by howard, this time from 2020 also (brian eno, teebs, julianna barwick, weval, throwing snow and more). 

 

the sun is up off the horizon and progressing(?) nicely to the north (until it reaches its maximum point at the solstice).  there are differences in sun path as well (its height in the sky). for horsemouth (a classic frog in a well kind of guy) the sun is having difficulty escaping the trees further down the valley (but soon it will be free to roam the horizon).  now it is above the wood and (annoyingly) shining in directly on where horsemouth sits. 

 athill starts her book alive, alive oh! and other things that matter by discussing the garden of her grandparents at ditchingham. 

'in the 18th century william cobbett wrote a didactic book about gardening which included a plan of the ideal kitchen garden. many years after I had grown up and was living in london I came across it, and to my delight recognised the ditchingham garden in every detail...' 

horsemouth has a couple of cobbett's round here (rural rides  of course, but also the english gardener,  and cottage economy, which is proving elusive, also). he had sorted out all the self-sufficiency and such like books into a pile planning to be good and to start reading them for gardening advice. there that's bugging him now. 

it is a nice safe topic with which to start. next a discussion of the post-war period and then one on visiting the caribbean (tobago) - she is alert to the  privilege and discrimination. then onto more difficult material (that horsemouth will discuss when he's read it).

sunday horsemouth's brother's eldest comes to stay, horsemouth will return to the wen for about a week (and attempt to do some walking and catching up with people).  looks like there is stuff coming up on the 10th but it looks like horsemouth will not be about. 

learn to forget (learn to forget)

'we also have to learn to forget music otherwise we become addicted to the past.' - keith jarrett on the anniversary of the 1975 koln concert. 

here we have the doors advising us to learn to forget from their soul kitchen. 

"which of the following issues has, over the past decade, most changed the way you look at your future?"

well covid. but people are committed to forgetting that as fast as possible. 

horsemouth thinks global warming will do more to change the planet than anything since industrialisation. 

but what it won't do is destroy capitalism (or it might but the thing that will replace it will be even worse - but he digresses). 

covid ended horsemouth's dayjob. but frankly the job was just an alibi. he was drifting, passing time while making music (and now he's on to the next thing).

the pity of it is that the music making ended (broadly in 2020) just when horsemouth got more free time. horsemouth has played gigs since the release of musicians of bremen volume four but he has not recorded anything (that has come out) or built up any momentum. he has tried a variety of side projects (but they are all on the back burner now). 

musicians of bremen (howard) has recorded and released material on bandcamp (but then rescinded it subsequently). 

last night a meeting of the communal endeavour. it went well horsemouth thought (the last one was a thorough going disaster - horsemouth was out of sorts and, at one point, lost his temper). 

“to reimagine the future of social housing”

it is the anniversary of this golden glow mixed by howard (from 2016). about 48 minutes in there's a song from musicians of bremen volume two. 

'the housing ombudsman in england is calling for an independent royal commission “to reimagine the future of social housing”'

well it will keep the lawyers and the 'independent royals' happy. have a long re-imagining. publish a report. file it away. job done. gongs all round. new years honours list. thanqew. 

now in some ways to re-imagine the future of social housing would be a good thing. its reputation has been blackened, the people who used it stigmatised as chavs, it is viewed as a failure to realise full possible value of the land it is on. 

privately rented accommodation has many of the same poor design/ disrepair/ difficult to heat problems but it is not subjected to anything like the same scrutiny or regulation. in many ways horsemouth views the entire strategy of tightening up regulation in the social housing sector as an attempt to further blacken its name. much of the disrepair is caused by a failure of government to fund social housing and local councils properly in the first place, by a parallel driving down of wage levels forcing tenants down into poverty, arrears, failure to heat their homes adequately, eviction, homelessness.

elsewhere alok sharma abstains on the government's new oil and gas bill. but that's not enough is it? no conservative MPs voted against it. in some ways horsemouth views it as the last hurrah of the dumb money. 

ok horsemouth will post this up now and see if he has more to say in the morning. 

'climate change, the war in ukraine, covid-19, immigration, and global economic turmoil...'

"which of the following issues has, over the past decade, most changed the way you look at your future?"

aka. the four horsemen of the apocalypse (and then some).

horsemouth will give you his opinion on the matter and then compare it to  survey results from 11 european countries: EU states germany, france, poland, italy, spain, denmark, romania, portugal, and estonia; and two european countries outside the EU – britain and switzerland.

(what no ireland, greece, czech, slovakia, austria, norway, sweden, finland, latvia, lithuania, hungary, slovenia, croatia, bosnia, serbia, macedonia, montenegro, albania, bulgaria, turkey?)

climate change 

horsemouth expects to be the big issue for the rest of his life (though that doesn't mean the others will go away or that it will become a sufficient priority for the ruling class, assuming that is still within their power to do anything effective about it).   

only in france and denmark do people choose climate change as the most important crisis. 

horsemouth expects this to be huge with millions  of people becoming climate refugees (possibly even a billion), famines, droughts, epidemics, wildfires, hurricanes. in fact he expects it to go proper biblical (and to stay proper biblical for most of the 21st century). 

the war in ukraine - well that's big in estonia, poland and denmark. horsemouth expects the war to drag on until the country is in the condition of syria. he expects it to get much scarier when donald trump becomes president because he will basically abandon ukraine to be defended by europe (and then we will get to see what european words are worth). 

covid-19. horsemouth thinks that this is the crisis just gone that people are doing their best to forget about. 

some wish to see it as an outbreak of authoritarianism, some as an example of the state stepping up and doing what it was capable of, some see it as a giant hand-out to the rich that will distort the economy for years to come. it was all of these. it was a proper global crisis but it is just the foothills of the shocks to come. 

on a personal level horsemouth took lockdown and such like as an opportunity to rethink what he was doing. he has stepped back from the world of work into the shadows of the economy. so far it all seems to be going ok. 

immigration. horsemouth never regards this as a problem. it is kind of like the weather - it just happens. the state under which horsemouth lives has an ageing  population it needs immigrants and workers of many sorts (because it needs people to work and to pay taxes to fund the pensions for the ageing population). in germany people regard this as the big issue. in britain it is surprisingly low down people's list of priorities (at least in the survey) not that you would know this by british domestic politics. 

global economic turmoil, now this horsemouth pretty much expects as standard. he agrees (in general if not in the particulars) with the international communist current here; 

'since the first world war, capitalism has been a decadent social system. it has twice plunged humanity into a barbaric cycle of crisis, world war, reconstruction and new crisis...'  

horsemouth had one of his earlier bands paraphrase part of this as 'boom, slump, war, reconstruction...' (but that was in the 90ies where war was seen as an actual threat).  in general he thinks that capitalism is fundamentally unstable and that these crises are not aberrations but how it operates - capitalism will not fall over because of its crises, it will simply work out how to make the workers pay for the crisis and then roll on. 

the italians and portuguese point to global economic turmoil as the major thing that has influenced their thinking (perhaps the greeks would too - if they'd been asked).

to horsemouth global economic turmoil (aka. capitalism) is where things are and where they are going (driven, to some extent, by climate change which will now drive immigration and global economic turmoil). covid-19 (or indeed the next pandemic) is off the radar once again (until it hits). 

 and yet for horsemouth the wilderness (aka. retirement) still seems pretty cool. he's not too bored.  he is still quite frustrated though. maybe that will ease with time. 

the sun tunnels under utah (X -in search of solstice)

last night (it will be even further in the past by the time you read this) horsemouth became interested in nancy holt's piece of land art far out in the deserts of utah the sun tunnels.

as you know horsemouth has a great interest in things calibrated to solstices - stonehenge, newgrange, maeshowe etc. and here is something (an X in cast concrete pipes) calibrated to both the summer and winter solstices. and people go to visit them. (even though they are way out in the desert). 

horsemouth likes manhattanhenge too - there is a discussion of related phenomena in other cities - where the grid system is aligned with sunrise or sunset on particular dates. the main street of milton keynes is aligned with midsummer and midwinter days for example. 

we are rapidly coming up to imbolc/st brigid's day (candlemass/ groundhog day) - the midpoint between the winter solstice and spring equinox (though what day to celebrate it on is a matter of some confusion). 

tonight on tv the thirty-nine steps (1978 robert powell version) - horsemouth did not watch it (but then he saw it in the cinema as a kid). he will have watched the ripping yarns spoof upon it - whinfrey's last case. 

tonight it's gonna rain (and be windy apparently). 

and in the morning a new week. 

a year with twelve moons (every seventh year)

skip the intro (it is difficult to hear), go to 2:54. probably the first time this piece was recorded OR performed live since 1967. 

'a dedication sung to tassajara - site of an old hot springs resort now the first zen monastery in the U.S., situated in the california mountains southeast of carmel.'  - robbie basho archives.

6 string guitar-BK krause and flute-alexis wendling. performed at the mother of good counsel church milwaukee. 

the natural reverb obliterates much of the spoken word intro but sounds great with the guitar and flute.  there's a guitar and viola duo for rocky mountain raga as well. the flautist and viola player do a number of duos and solo pieces (syrinx by debussy for example). thank you people it all sounds great. 

horsemouth's celebration of the occupation of centre point 50 years ago ended at 3pm yesterday - roughly the time at which the occupation ended. there were some protestors who did not wish to leave and were forced out by the police. 

here another howard-mixed golden glow (this time from 21st january 2018).

next week the anniversary of keith jarrett's koln concert, a meeting of the communal endeavour and a wolf moon using the old farmer's almanac naming system (derived from the unrelated maine farmer's almanac naming system).  

this year is a year with twelve moons.

a year with thirteen moons is possible. one with an additional blue moon. for a year with 13 full moons  to happen the first full moon must occur by the 10th of january. it occurs 7 times in the 19 years of the metonic cycle,  roughly every seventh year. 

horsemouth has grown interested in nancy holt's  sun tunnels  but he's going to have to delay talking about them until next time. 

potemkin villages (seen from cummings' car window as he drives to barnard castle)

on the closure of the last blast furnace at port talbot

good arguments are being made here in the first half of the program by a welsh labour guy about the need to avoid decarbonisation by de-industrialisation (and the offshoring of dirty carbon intensive processes rather than their full replacement). 

but horsemouth is clear that we need to get on and decarbonise as soon as is possible. (this is very much horsemouth - he just wants to get on, he has no patience with the niceties). 

horsemouth is continuing to celebrate the occupation of centre point 50 years ago but his celebration will end at 3pm on the 20th - roughly the time at which the occupation ended. there were some protestors who did not wish to leave and were forced out by the police. 

'dostoyevsky and nietzsche remain the two best people to read to understand contemporary politics and the pathologies of the dominant moral-political perspective of insiders. it may seem odd to say people writing in the 19th century wrote more perceptively on today’s san francisco/SW1 elites than today’s media but it’s true...' - dominic cummings, snippets 12, 19th january 2024. 

dear god we are really in for it aren't we. horsemouth supposes it is a step up from his endless deployment(s) of potemkin villages (seen from cummings' car window as he drives to barnard castle). instead of cheap astroturfed scenery of social policy success we have a psychological diagnosis of 'the insiders' (as is cummings isn't himself an insider). 

the combination of minard's infographic and tolstoy's war and peace is a powerful one but it doesn't make it true (merely persuasive). one could of course apply a similar infographic to cummings' own career and credibility - 'the retreat from highpoint of the referendum vote' being essentially similar to the retreat from moscow.  

cummings has gone all goodreads, book-tock and penguin classics. why not go the whole hog and cite erofeev and konvicki?  

here's another golden glow mix by howard from 20th january 2019 -as he puts it 'ambient chilled relax work whatever. it's just good to have in the background and features some of the best from 2018' seems to be some alice coltrane in there about 46 minutes in.  

horsemouth (by himself) (horsemouth free of copyright)

'he's writing a lot less down in his diary because he's not trapped without technology while working. nor is he on buses and trains. and this affects the quality of his blitherings here.  he's finding it difficult to read during the day, he usually only manages to read last thing at night.' 

'was not his providential birth and survival to be contrasted with the death of his twin sister who had seemed more robust.' - introduction to john clare by himself  by eric robnson and david powell. 

this could so easily be PKD (his twin sister died also). john clare has come free of copyright. looks like horsemouth will have to read more john clare. (he'll have a look around - it's the kind of book that could be here in a folio edition or somesuch). he's had a look online - the little he read was good. 

in the centre point occupation timeline centre point is still occupied and will be until 3pm on the 20th (even then there will be scuffles removing the protestors who didn't want to leave after 48 hours). 

this time last year (2020(3)) horsemouth was suffering with his dental health (after years of neglect). it's still not fully resolved but at least he is in a pain free era of it. at the time he was reading the world that made new orleans by ned sublette (book box- free). a great history of new orleans. 

this time in 2020(2) he was watching armando crispino's autopsy (aka macchie solari or sunspots), an engaging giallo with a slight science fiction edge and an avant garde morricone soundtrack.

horsemouth was up at the bench at the top of the common. in a while a documentary about the possibility of nuclear war and the doomsday clock of the bulletin of the atomic scientists. this is something horsemouth no longer worries about. if the world were to be blown up now horsemouth would be distinctly surprised and put out. on the other hand global warming above 2C and climate change he sees as a certainty.  

today more walks. saturday the usual. next week the anniversary of keith jarrett's koln concert, a meeting of the communal endeavour and a wolf moon. 

centre point occupied! (but it cannot hold)

yesterday horsemouth delivered the eggs and took down the recycling bin. horsemouth wandered back by the river dore and the abbey (and then later had a wander up on the common). it is less muddy than usual because the mud is semi-frozen.  he brought over the wood.

there's a howard golden glow as well from yesterday in  2016 playing tracks by mutual benefit, peter broderick, tokimonsta, FC KAHUNA, massive attack, emahoy tsegué-maryam guèbrou and more.

'centre point, harry hyams’s office block in london which has been empty since it was built 10 years ago, last night was occupied by about a hundred demonstrators...'

centrepoint was occupied  fifty years ago today  by protestors including folk songwriter/ d-day survivor, and chevalier of the légion d'honneur  jim radford. 

“we want to show that statements about the government having clamped down on property speculators are nonsense, this is not just a protest against this government, however, but society.”

fifty years later there is a homeless charity called centrepoint, a homeless charity called crisis, and yes there is still a homelessness crisis (and in fact it is getting worse). 

horsemouth has spent a considerable amount of time on trying to increase the amount of social housing offered by the communal endeavour but that he feels this period in his life is coming to an end.  there are other priorities now - getting the houses (and the flats in houses) insulated passed energy performance certificate (EPC) C standard, dealing with the new requirements from the social housing regulation act, and, finally, being ready for any nasty surprises. 

horsemouth thought he'd be getting some technology up and running - but no, it has been pushed the other side of saturday (which is probably just as well, he was beginning to get anxious). horsemouth is a big fan of slowly but surely, of softly softly. he's writing a lot less down in his diary because he's not trapped without technology while working nor is he on buses and trains. and this affects the quality of his blitherings here.  he's finding it difficult to read during the day, he usually only manages to read last thing at night. 

the star of robbie's guitar

this guy seems to have lots of robbie basho live stuff (and his logo is the star of robbie's guitar).

horsemouth has been feeling a little uninspired of late. yesterday the clearing out of the second greenhouse. today delivering the eggs and taking down the bin (the recycling bin). there's a howard golden glow as well from this day in  2016. 

horsemouth thinks he will post up early and then add more as it occurs to him. often it takes him a few looks at a piece before he can see what it needs. 

food (clothes) and shelter needed the list of freya's books. 

heating and transport needed the discussion of stoke prior halt railway station and bill's book. 

'that's not possible' 'watch it and see' probably needs more discussion of ventriloquism (indeed there's a discussion to be had about harmony singing  as a kind of ventriloquism). 

demonstrate humanity! (technical recession) is a poor and unrelated title. once again freya saves the day but the buck curran tribute to steffen basho-junghans played using robbie basho's guitar (the one with the star on it) on the day of the winter solstice. (see nice re-incorporation)/ 

ok it could end there (because re-incorporation has been achieved). but horsemouth thinks he won't. 

food (clothes) and shelter (the struggle continues)

so before gaza there was yemen? no that's the wrong way round isn't it?

'yemen has been suffering from a famine since 2016 as a result of the civil war. more than 50,000 children in yemen died from starvation in 2017. numerous commentators have condemned the saudi-led coalition's military campaign, including its blockade of yemen, as genocide... the UN estimated that by the end of 2021, the war in yemen would have caused over 377,000 deaths, and roughly 70% of deaths were children under age 5.' - wikipedia, accessed 15/01/24. 

stop me if you've heard this one before. the bombing publicises the history of the war in yemen which, in some ways, resembles the war on gaza. just in case anyone thought gaza was a one-off and that the global community was going to do anything about it. 

and ahem. who arms the saudis? we do. we do. 

and who is bombing yemen now that the saudi's aren't? we are. we are. 

the west covers itself in glory (once again). 

anyway. so 2020(4) the struggle continues. 

freya stark visited yemen. she was keen to explore the hadhramaut or central region as detailed in three books, the southern gates of arabia: a journey in the hadhramaut (1936), seen in the hadhramaut (1938) and a winter in arabia (1940). it also features in one of the volumes of her autobiography  the coast of incense. autobiography 1933–1939 (1953) (which is where horsemouth read it first). 

last night he read some more of freya's earlier adventures in persia - in luristan, the lurs have a terrible reputation as thieves. 

it's a frosty morning but there is sunshine. in texas there was snow (hell there was a blizzard) - horsemouth was chatting with mike heidt last night, old friends, the possibility of meeting up in april. a friend has retired (well done). 

heating and transport

'I am not/ ashamed to say/ that I light my wood burner/ every day...'

so say the rebel poets of the daily torygraph. 

now this is an interesting air quality struggle that has been largely won in the cities (because of the smog) - you cannot burn coal anymore in england and  if you live in a city (a smoke controlled zone) you cannot burn wood at all unless you have a defra-exempt stove. councils can apply on the spot fines. 

17% of  asthma, stroke and cancer causing PM2.5 particles in the air come from wood burners but in some parts of the country more comes from wood burners than from traffic (the other major source).  

the thing with the torygraphers is that they live in the cities as if they lived in the countryside. but the argument is that log burners are cheap to run. logs in the countryside must be dried (if not kiln dried logs) or smokeless fuels must be used. nonetheless even kiln dried logs can be cheaper per kwh than mains gas.

so much for horsemouth's sunday afternoon research project. 

there's a photo of credenhill former railway station in herefordshire. 

there are very few railway stations left in herefordshire - only four hereford, leominster, colwall and ledbury. 

this should be compared with the list of disused railway stations in herefordshire which is really quite extensive. 

the trains stopped at stoke prior (near where horsemouth's mum grew up) but she doesn't remember ever getting the train from there as a kid. she says she will ask her brother about it the next time they talk. he's also found bill from the trout inn's book on the cleobury mortimer and ditton priors light railway (OPC 1980) in shropshire.

horsemouth can't help but wonder about this whenever he has the desire to go anywhere. 

he's up early for some strange reason.

the black cat that visits is getting quite adventurous in terms of stalking the birds. 

'that's not possible' 'watch it and see'

horsemouth was slightly drunk (and thus reasonably happy) following zoom beers with howard 

(the two of bottles).  

after last year (of which the less said the better) bad news has struck at the communal endeavour this time. horsemouth is engaged in getting his head around it.  as usual it is about money - and time.  

it is similar in some ways to the government's requirement that all communal endeavour owned property be insulated up to EPC C standard by 2030 (with all the costs that will entail) - there's 6 years left in which to do this, as long as they start and get a plan it's all good.  

2026 says horsemouth - the bad news will not actually hit until 2026. they therefore have time to get their heads round it.

there was due to be a 'not the consortium' meeting friday, but james the consortium wizard was busy with other things. tuesday horsemouth is supposed to be zoom meeting a solicitor. wednesday 24th there's a meeting on zoom of the communal endeavour. 

and here we have nina conti (the ventriloquist) and her monkey singing a duet. 

'that's not possible' said howard.

'watch it and see'  said horsemouth. 

if horsemouth remembers correctly there's a cultural studies book on ventriloquism (yes dumbstruck steven connor). a few sample pages of this as he can't get you a few sample pages of that. 

here we have horsemouth and howard as sock puppets. they did put on a puppet show (and after this they went to the pub).

he brought over some logs for the conservatory basket (smaller ones). he went for a walk on the common. he read some of the torygraph money section (thinking this definitely doesn't apply to me). he read an article on yemen and an article on gaza. he read an article on chicken shit in the wye. 

'the years of brutal war in yemen, sustained by britain and the US, with a death toll in the hundreds of thousands, go unmentioned'

horsemouth has mostly taken to writing these pieces the afternoon of day before. when he worked it was something for the morning before he went out. as usual he benefits from being able to see what he is thinking (even if he is not thinking a lot). 

the sun is up (so is horsemouth). mackrelish skies.

demonstrate humanity! (technical recession)

oof! horsemouth has just attempted to order something by telephone banking (kill him now).  the woman in india was chatty but there was a fuck of a lot of background noise that made it hard to hear anything. in the end they seem to have made it. (woop de doo)

buck curran's track winter solstice 1, a tribute to steffen basho-junghans was recorded on the day of the winter solstice 2022 using robbie basho's antique  12 string guitar (there's a campaign set up to help pay for its restoration). the video was filmed on location in bergamo, italy, on the 13th of january 2023 by david james logan. so it is the anniversary of filming the video. 

it all sounds (and looks) great - they are obviously working with the limitations of the guitar which is kind of like steffen's way of working.  

there's an album of other tribute tracks to steffen. 

'a sweeping counterfactual description of the conflict' 

the hell that is the ethnic cleansing (at a minimum) of gaza continues but the supply chain choke point that is the red sea will concern us more (because it will drive inflation in europe and the uk).  but no we will be more concerned about the postmasters. 

horsemouth is feeling bilious and bored. he spends too much time on youtube (and not enough time reading). he should make more effort to get on with freya stark's the valleys of the assassins. 

ok he will make that effort. freya tries to climb the throne of solomon. but she is recovering from illness, a perfidious guide leads her the wrong way and her party is defeated. 

'here was more than beauty. we were remote, as in a place closed by high barriers from the world. no map had yet printed its name for the eyes of strangers.'

horsemouth has finished reading the section on the assassins he will no go back and read her earlier journey in persia. 

war in the east (war in the west)

bin brought back up. firewood brought over. walk on the common. 

bit of a grump. verifications. a meeting. another walk on the common. 

today (as will be) a visit from the podiatrist. 

it requires careful tap-dancing to stop the upcoming war in the east from starting. (because it has in fact already started). the job of the west is to stop the war from being declared and thus from being 'dragged into it'. in some ways horsemouth should welcome the war. once the warfare is commenced on several fronts apparent strength becomes weakness. resources must be diverted and thus divided and thus weakened.

horsemouth would of course prefer wisdom's alternative to war to all of this, but it doesn't seem to be available. 

horsemouth's mum's house is heated with oil - he should probably hurry up and order some more before it gets expensive.  

 by the end of next year something like half of humanity will have gone to the polls. the political map of the world could look very different. (horsemouth suspects the current brace of wars will still be with us though).

horsemouth's advice remains to flee - to become a refugee, to go and study abroad and then make it from there. the world does not care (enough). the world will not be coming to save you. 

it is the anniversary of the triple negative gig (this one reminded horsemouth of flowers of romance era PIL). a year ago, it's the anniversary of horsemouth going to see the mari lwyd (about four years ago). last year horsemouth was feeling anxious about communal endeavour stuff (and guess what? here he is being anxious about communal endeavour stuff). 

a grey morning (and probably cold out there). crows probably rabbits. 

'from alamut the old man despatched his assassins...'

eggs delivered. rubbish bin taken down. 

a walk round the river and the back of the abbey. 

a journey to the valley of the assassins

freya stark begins her account with a three page history of the assassins from their founding in 1091 to their 1256 destruction by the mongols of hulagu khan. marco polo mentions them, william burroughs also, betty bouthoul writes the book that burroughs reads. 

freya started her journey in may traveling to qazvin and then up into the hills and up to alamut. she describes it well but there are just ruins to visit and the locals' memories seem contaminated with other (earlier) travellers' tales. she is good on the people (she is good with people). 

sunrise 08:16 sunset 16:24

we are at better than 8 hours of daylight. 

'evidence given to the inquiry into the grenfell fire, for which a final report is pending, has suggested the company relied on other subcontractors to check the compliance of the materials being used, and that it took £126,000 of the £419,000 saved by switching the cladding to cheaper, more combustible material.

in a statement to the inquiry following this, rydon’s QC, marcus taverner, said the company was operating in an “orthodox manner” and “following industry practice”...'

oh dear. not looking good for rydon - horsemouth will now work out its rate for killing people. given 72 deaths at grenfell horsemouth makes that £1,750 per person - a tidy profit (excluding reputational damage). 

today horsemouth's brother will mostly be working and horsemouth will mostly be feeling guilty. 

ok he's just remembered - he should bring the bin back up. he's done that. feeling slightly virtuous. tick. 

'I had long wished to go there...' ( journey to the valley of the assassins)

'I had long wished to go there. but there were obstacles. one of them was that I could not find it on my map...' - freya stark, a journey to the valley of the assassins. 1930. 

yesterday's purchases? 3 pairs of socks from  oxfam, and, at £2.99, freya stark's the valleys of the assassins. 

'an imaginative aunt who, for my ninth birthday, sent a copy of the arabian nights, was, I suppose, the original cause of the problem.' 

horsemouth is doing some reading on section 20ies - the ability of the building owner to force a leaseholder to pay for repairs. sadly this may prove useful to him in the coming year. 

it looks like there may be a bit of a revolt within tory ranks over their new gas and oil drilling rights bill (leave it in the ground (or under the sea) says horsemouth). 

'conservatives are facing almost certain defeat at the election and so now is not the time for colleagues to be slavishly obedient to a leadership that simply will not be there in a matter of months...'  - zac goldsmith.

it is interesting to observe how well the tories are doing at getting out ahead of the postmasters/ post-mistresses scandal (it's a rare outbreak of competence).  

footage of nadhim zadawi 'doing right(!)' by the post-mistresses and post-masters (or at least saying the right thing) has emerged. horsemouth thought it was curious that in the tv drama actual footage of zadawi was used (where as just about everyone else was played by an actor). andrew bridgen and such like tories were prominent in the campaign - the backbenchers have covered themselves with glory, whether the ministers will get their share of the shame remains to be seen. at the moment the government and media are chucking it heavily at the IT system designers. 

the procurement and operation of this system has a long history, the post office handling its own prosecutions has a long history, the requirement on postmasters to make good their losses has a long history - surely all these factors were contributory to the crisis. 

the tories can of course easily get on the right side of this (twenty years later after the courts have sorted out their mess). 

and in other news paula vennells (formerly a candidate for bishop of london and non-executive member of the cabinet office.) will be handing back her CBE. but is vennells any more egregious than her predecessors in this case?  

and meanwhile there is the grenfell inquiry and the covid inquiry... 

freya stark's account of her journey to the valley of the assassins is excellent. horsemouth will read more today. 

the struggle continues

so rishi has ducked the opportunity to endorse peter bone (ex-MP)'s lover as tory party candidate for  peter bone's ex-seat (though he might go out and campaign for her) and they have decided not to remove the whip from paul maynard (likely to be disciplined by parliament for using parliamentary expenses to fund conservative party work). 

it is ten years since the death of reliably angry poet amiri baraka. 

they don't make music like this anymore! proper mad hippies - 

the sufi choir was founded by allaudin mathieu in san francisco 1969 by followers of sufi mystic samuel l lewis (murshid lewis). mathieu had in the early part of the '60s been an arranger/composer for the stan kenton and duke ellington jazz bands.

horsemouth is off to town (to see the wizard  of oz) with his brother and mother. maybe there will be a chance to pick up some books while they are at it. he may post more when he gets back. 

oh comedy - thy name is tory party

yesterday (by the time you read this)  the tidying up of  the christmas decorations (a bit late but done nonetheless - better late than never). 

oh comedy - thy name is tory party.

they've only gone and picked peter bone's lover as the replacement for (the disgraced and dishonourable)  ex-MP peter bone. colours firmly nailed to the mast there of no fucks given - no one likes us we don't care.  

richard holden, conservative party chair, has already tweeted his congratulations. 

bone had apparently threatened to run as an independent unless his lover was selected. 

meanwhile it looks like paul maynard MP  the pensions minister will be suspended from parliament and possibly subject to a recall petition and a by-election. details here.

it gets better, that skidmore by-election seat? it's being abolished at the next election. one has to admire the quality of his revenge. 

horsemouth must get back into the habit of using his diary/ diaries. 

and he must get back into the habit of reading also. he's finding it difficult to get started. 

he's just started on a kazuo ishiguro story malvern hills in nocturnes. 

-------------------------------------

so horsemouth's retirement plan looks something like this - live out of his savings until the state pension hits. obviously he can't do this all the way but he can do frugal. any money he can avoid spending now will still get interest (or the benefits of being invested in ISAs and suchlike) until he actually spends it. he's in the early stages of discovering what is actually possible. 

one problem is that the stock market rallies and collapses affect his savings figures, in recent months making them look better than they are (at some points making them look worse). 

the assumption is that the state pension will still be there when he gets there and worth something similar to what it is worth now. 

one interesting thing with the horizon IT scandal (and the persecution of the post-masters/ mistresses by the post office) seems to have been missed. 

'in 1996, international computers limited (ICL) began working on a computer accounting system, horizon, for the publicly owned post office corporation and the department of social security, to enable integrated payment of social security benefits through post office branches. the department of social security rejected the system, but the government continued with its procurement for the post office...

horizon is the outcome of the pathway project, whose procurement process commenced in august 1994, and announced by social security minister peter lilley at the 1995 conservative party conference.'

 

'the poor are getting old' (die with zero)

argh! a consequence of the power outage seems to be that the controller for the central heating and the oven won't come on at the preset times. horsemouth was instructed not to touch it and the repairman was called. he took a look at it and reset the times. now it seems not to have come on at the requisite time. horsemouth has been told this (and again instructed not to touch it). 

horsemouth thinks there is almost certainly an easy way of turning on the heating (when needed) and the oven (when needed) so he is not too worried. whether he can get it to work with the timer (without being allowed to touch it) is another matter. 

hopefully it will now come on at the correct time (yes horsemouth touched it). 

there is a manual. (phew thank fuck it has just clicked on when it was supposed to). 

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two walks on the common today.

it is three years since the storming of the capitol by donald trump supporters. horsemouth read an interview with the Qanon shaman (as was) - what is he up to now? more hucksterism. possibly running for congress. was it an insurrection? well yes, but a plausibly deniable one. 

horsemouth is looking forward to his brother's visit on tuesday. 

--------------------------------------------------------------

in the evening nomadland. it is interesting that one of the driving forces behind this is now called  the great recession as if only after the event can it be admitted. the nomads work - we are now into a society where the deal for the working class is so bad that work can no longer gets them a roof over their heads. and... in the words of the ruthless rap assassins 'the poor are getting old'.  in some ways the film at least relates it to the experience economy (accumulate experiences not money) and to  the die with zero plan - use your money now to have experiences, aim to die with little money and few possessions. 

there is a confluence with the ideas of minimalism (minimalist lifestyle) here.

of course in their travel the old people are not doing it under the sign of leisure (and consumption) but under the sign of work (and thus production). they are therefore bad people for bringing a dirty secret to life. they reveal the house you live in, that you may have thought of as capital, as a possession, as merely something that reproduces your labour value and gets you to work on a monday morning, as a debt-motor. 

look at these people - rob the nomad, thrift a life/ bookpilled . they are young, smart and active but they are also either homelesss, on the edge of homelessness or a  paycheck away from the street. thrfit a life/ bookpilled has escaped - but to do so he must go traveling in mexico and asia, rob the nomad was homeless but then he was walking the appalacian way (so his nomadism was sanctified as leisure). both have discovered youtube as a huckster-machine. look at Qanon shaman here - one hustle ends, he is on to the next. 

fish island (the clue is in the name)

 fish island under water (indeed). 

with global warming the scientists predicted wetter and warmer winters. 

now the warmer bit is good (well not so bad) because a warm winter means less energy will be needed to heat houses resulting in less greenhouse gas emissions.

but the wetter bit is potentially a problem. many cities towns and villages are built near water - i.e. in marshy river bottoms prone to flooding. as streets are tarmacked over and garden areas concreted over, as trees are cut down, as green spaces are built upon, the ability of the ground to absorb water and delay it running off downhill is reduced. more water floods downhill producing a flood risk not just near bodies of water (canals etc.) but also on anywhere with a gradient.

the flooding of a neighbour's basement flat a few doors from horsemouth's got his attention. as horsemouth is in the basement room it doubly got his attention. the communal endeavour doesn't have any property on fish island but it does have some houses further downhill and lower down than horsemouth's and nearer to the canal (but it was one 3 doors down from horsemouth's that flooded rather than these because the problem is a drainage and run off of rainwater problem). 

but warmer in summer  is bad because it means keeping the houses cool will become a problem. and wetter in summer can be a problem because increased evapouration rates can lead to more intense storms dumping more rainwater on the streets (and thus a better chance of flooding). 

the city of london and docklands are protected from tidal and storm surges by the thames barrier but they cannot be protected from floodwaters from off the thames flood plain except by flood prevention measures in the city and flood mitigation  measures upstream (allowing it to flood upstream, planting trees etc.). 

and meanwhile chris skidmore MP has resigned - the former energy minister who signed the UK’s net zero commitment (by 2050) into law resigns disgusted at sunak's new oil and gas drilling licences. 

this means another bye-election (oh dear! lol) with  a contest in the “blue wall” south-west in february or march. one of three by-elections in the early months of 2024. 

more joan didion (horsemouth has posted this before). the blue nights - all that stuff round mourning and being unaware that things will change (and have in fact changed already). she does it so well. in another excerpt from it the curse of memorabilia, of 'stuff' when you don't want to remember.  

rob the nomad is a little shocked for some reason a year after he finished his appalachian way walk it has suddenly become popular on youtube. but he has finished the walk and went and get a job and is planning to start renting a house (as soon as he can afford to move out of the shelter). what is he to do with this 'success' now?  

horsemouth is a little slow getting back into the year. tuesday next week his brother is up and they are visiting the solicitor. his return to the wen is delayed until the 28th. (hopefully it will not all be under water by then). 

last night a dream. horsemouth in the squat parties sent out for wine. 

on facebook the ribbing has begun:

'river lea burst it's banks flooding hackney wick. we're probably facing a conceptual art shortage for the next few weeks...'

and quote 'who will that inconvenience? rewild it. god will know his own.' 

another early post (possibly to be added to in the morning)

in the morning the broadband went out because the plugs had gone out - this was horsemouth's first task of the day. he brought in some logs (for the new conservatory log basket), brought the recycling bin back up the hill and checked that the sheep weren't vaulting over the fence. 

later he went for a walk (studiously avoiding everybody) and did some litter-picking on his way back. (there are few people on the common so there is very little litter). 

if horsemouth can just make it out of the 2020ies... sometime early in the 2030ies he's through to the bounteous sunny uplands (which will doubtless be a freezing, impoverished hell-hole by the time he gets there). he's pretty confident he will make it - he's already more than a third of the way through. 

the sub-postmaster/ horizon scandal is in many ways the indicative crisis of the era, people required to operate a flawed computer system with inadequate training. people trapped in inequitable contracts. (horsemouth thinks there are parallels with the roll out of smart meters and the great leap forward). 

what was interesting is how neatly the drama avoided this central tension. how quickly scenes involving people in distress were resolved and ameliorated. by the end of episode one the fightback was on. by the end of episode two there was a sympathetic MP and an independent investigation.  by the end of episode three the investigation was stymied. 

anyway last episode this evening.  

the people who survive it best are those who ducked out early - the rest are left with anger, depression, suicide, mental health issues etc. to say nothing of those jailed, fined, charged the costs of their court case or who had their reputations destroyed. the person responsible for (a lot if not all of) this gets a CBE. the MPs get to look like they are doing their job (actual footage of nadhim zadawi from the select committee being used as opposed to the scene being restaged).

in fact the whole thing remains unresolved twenty plus years later with much of the compensation promised not paid and never likely to be paid.

jesus but this country is fucking shit.

the tories get to escape full responsibility for this IT/ privatisation nightmare because they were in coalition with the liberal democrats  for some of the time (so it's all ed davies' fault clearly).  

'doctor faustus may not be such a bad subject. 

leverkuhn is a character one can so well understand'      

- andrey tarkovsky, 10th february 1979

(drawing by tarkovsky also). 

the soul's song (the dances of universal peace)

wednesday afternoon 

where the branch had been knocked off the tree and fallen into the fence horsemouth has now dragged it out of the way (to where it is now waiting for someone with a chainsaw) and lopped back the brambles etc. beneath it to allow him to nail the fence wire back up on the post. 

he should have taken some gardening gloves up with him (he would have made a better job of it all). still as a repair job he thinks it will do. the putative escaping sheep are attacking uphill, behind the fence there is the remnants of a hedge etc. 

now he waits to see if the next storm will bring down the rest of the silver birch (or more branches from the tree it has fallen onto) and undo his good work. 

in the afternoon he walked some eggs round to a neighbour and walked the recycling bin down the drive.

horsemouth is thinking that he is bored and will publish tonight (and possibly add more in the morning).

it looks like he will be back in the wen for a bit  from round about the 21st to the 28th. 

horsemouth must get back into the habit of using his diary - he has one (matter of fact he has two) for this year (and even, on close examination has some duplication between his diary for the year before and the last 5 months of the year before that). 

a diary is how he can tell you that on this day last year he visited walthamstow with john fromporto, they visited the william morris museum, and horsemouth bought a hard guitar case and a gig bag in the sally army opposite (£15 and £2 respectively),  in the evening they watched onibaba (which was truly excellent). 

the above choir were followers of samuel l. lewis (apparently) - the inventor of the dances of universal peace. 

thursday morning

the day looks like it will be decent (weather-wise). the next few weeks seem mostly bright in the day (horsemouth's main test) but cold. there are a couple of days in the next few weeks with dirty great sun logos on them. 🌞

desenrascanço (and the geringonça)

 

 yesterday rain, lots of rain. the chickens, the sheep and the wild birds seemed stoical about it

in the afternoon (2pm) strong winds. horsemouth does hope it doesn't bring down the half-felled silver birch up on the common or that, if it falls, it doesn't take out the fence while the sheep are visiting (leading to a mass sheep escape and other horrors). the falling silver birch has already smashed a large  branch of a closer tree (horsemouth has cut the smaller branches off it but chain-sawing it up will have to wait for someone with those skills). 

it rained quite a bit (rainbows), horsemouth went out to make sure the cess pit wasn't flooded (or flooded any more than it had been by the swimming pool developing on top of it). he cut a little drainage channel with a spade to drain the water from the top of it away faster, he cut another one to divert the spring that seemed to have opened up in the banking above it away from it. 

here horsemouth was following desenrascanço - a portuguese problem solving strategy of' 'using something which you have next to you' to untangle yourself from the net of circumstances, with a smart, quick, and improvised solution. there's a lot of this in portugal, a product of the salazar years, the FMI years, and then, in answer to  EU austerity, the geringonça, the 'contraption' -  the lashed together government of the left. 

horsemouth went up onto the common to cut through some obstructions to the water flowing away downhill faster (downstream be damned - or at least flooded) through the drainage ditch deepened by his father round the foot of the hedge.  he'll take another look in the morning. he didn't make any specific journeys out up on the common for a walk (it was just raining too hard). 

he has added no more to his diary today (in part because the table he drew out to help clarify his thinking on insulation covered a two page spread). he did, however, listen to a podcast episode about notebooks . 

horsemouth is awake. he has his coffee. bbc weather says the day doesn't look too bad (and tomorrow even better). 

soon (end of the month - candlemass eve) it will be the anniversary of the source of all good things aka. brexit. it was the pivotal moment when we proud brits took back control of our borders and worked out how to fund the NHS properly (this is horsemouth being sarcastic in the light of subsequent events).  that went well. 

horsemouth was in porto (having a whale of a time) when the result of the referendum was announced. seldom has he felt more discouraged.  the deep state failed in its historic task of thwarting the democratic will of the 52% of people who voted by kicking the ball into touch and so brexit actually happened (to the extent that something so nebulous can actually happen). 

 

at the grand opening of abergavenny railway station 2nd january 1854

horsemouth has gone down a strange youtube rabbit hole. he is either following people walking the appalachian trail (rob the  nomad)  or hiding out in the woods being homeless (er. rob the nomad) or people making their cars warmer for sleeping in in winter. the advantage of walking the appalachian trail seems to be that you have a reason for being there (and are thus not homeless). 

horsemouth has been doing some planning out of the road to the insulation of the communal endeavour - counting up the houses, the flats in houses in the program and the people who live in them (half the co-op), counting the flats not in the program and the members living in them (a quarter of the co-op), counting the members in short-life (a further quarter of the co-op) not in the program.  his maoist slogan is all owned properties at EPC C or better by 2030! (which is good because it is what the government require of them by law). 

when horsemouth comes to look back over the years he sees that the results of his efforts to get more people housed long term (and thus bring more financial stability to the co-op) have been paltry in comparison with the amount of effort necessary to achieve them . he realises this is the kind of topic that just makes him grumpy and is not good to think about just before bed-time.  

frankly after 20 years of working with his fellow members of the communal endeavour  homelessness is starting to look very appealing.  (mind you, looking out of the window at the rain, less so). 

thus horsemouth has decided to abandon housing and take up historic train-spotting instead. 

it's 2nd january 1854 abergavenny station opens as part of the newport, abergavenny and hereford railway (NA&HR), and horsemouth is right there. the station opens under the name abergavenny monmouth road. (abergavenny itself had 3 railway stations at one point - abergavenny brecon road, abergavenny junction and abergavenny monmouth road.)

(the station itself is grade II listed now and was designed by charles liddell).  

after abergavenny on the line  there were the stations at llanvihangel, pandy, pontrilas (a spur up the golden valley railway to hay constructed 1889, article here), st. devreux, tram inn, hereford barton, and hereford barrs court (with a spur off along the hereford, hay and brecon railway (as used by kilvert) to hay constructed 1864), all opening that same day. 

as you can judge all these railway stations would be very useful to modern-day horsemouth were they still in existence (of all these stations only abergavenny and hereford are still in existence) and to be frank, that's not even the half of it for victorian railway activity in the area). 

today lots of rain. later this afternoon (2pm) strong winds forecast. horsemouth does hope it doesn't bring down the half-felled silver birch up on the common or that, if it falls, it doesn't take out the fence while the sheep are visiting. 

 

'to part with the passing year'

'unwilling to part with the passing year I drank til late on the last day of december. when I awoke after a long sleep, the first day of the new year was more than half gone.'  - matsuo bashō, the records of a well-worn satchel. 

for new years horsemouth stayed in. he had a bottle of beer with his mum. 

so. it is now 2020(4) (horsemouth takes all the years of the twenty-twenties to be basically similar). 

2020 - the pandemic, the US election (stolen- allegedly) 

2020(1) - the insurrection on capitol hill, the pandemic continues 

2020(2) - russia invades ukraine (again - after 2014, er. there may have been earlier times depending on how you see things), pandemic begins to break (mid-year), winter energy crisis kicks in. 

2020(3) - pandemic grinds to a halt(ish) mid year. winter energy crisis returns, genocide in gaza begins. 

2020(4) - year of the trump campaign to recover the 'stolen' election, the war in ukraine drags on, probably more winter energy crisis. 

for horsemouth the years are better divided

2020 - working remotely

2021 - redundancy

2022 - retirement (year 1), 2023 - retirement (year 2), 2024 - retirement (year 3) etc.

meanwhile the world is still marked by the outcomes (economic and political) of the 2008 financial crash (austerity and populism) and will be marked even more deeply by global warming/ climate crisis/ the climate emergency.  

how does horsemouth think it will go from here on in? badly. sunak wanted a secret deal with cummings to get him (sunak) re-elected (fairplay cummings is good rishi - but he's not that good!). 

the tories are bound to lose the next election (pretty much), so far so good (but it's too late). in any event labour have promised they won't do anything different (so it won't make much difference) and (over the pond) trump may be re-elected and even if it's biden then so what? and, and... 

anyway. 

so. it is now it's  2020(4). ticking down. horsemouth will let it become 2020(4), he will post this up and then he will go to bed. he may hear fireworks from the next village or he may not. last minute. fireworks. happy new year peoples. 

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in the morning a dream.

the tomb of bush house

the guy from the african guitar class (who played in agents of chaos) and a girl horsemouth thought he recognised but can't place now. there was some paperwork that horsemouth recognised as being from the time (like it was magically and perfectly from that time). there was more material to be recovered. the tombs were below ground but labelled and chained up. noise came from the bush house tomb. the guy visiting the  nearby bonjo-I shrine/ tomb complained about the noise (ok in the cold light of day horsemouth knows that bonjo isn't dead) which seemed to be above ground but in a shrouded room. 

rain in the afternoon.