a black cat visits the homestead.
it finds something worth hunting in the long grass on the banking and then makes its way away round the chicken wire and back round the front of the house. horsemouth thinks it comes from the nearby ex-pub (the neville, no longer in service). someone has stuck a little bell on the black cat's collar (this is cruel and kind at the same time).
the rabbits, the chickens, the wild birds - all seem to be doing ok and as horsemouth walked back from opening up the abbey there was a cock pheasant in the field rattling away in an ill-advised fashion. (careful fool you'll get yourself shot).
later he went for a walk on the common. he met a guy called paul up there who had lived in abbeydore in the hamlet but now lives in ewyas harold. he had a very large alsatian with him.
later still he went down to lock up the abbey - he thinks that's the last day of his mum's stint. hopefully he got in his 10 000 paces for the day.
the meeting about insulating the houses up to the EPC C standard was on saturday.
horsemouth was away in the countryside and so was not able to attend.
6 people attended from 6 different houses (including howard). together with people who attend the communal endeavour meetings regularly (such as yours truly) that makes 8 out of the 14 dwellings - the other 6 they're going to have to pick up later.
horsemouth takes the view they have until 2030 to get it done (otherwise they're in potential trouble with the regulator for social housing). nonetheless it would be good to get it started as soon as possible (so peoples gas and electricity bills go down as soon as possible, so people are warmer in winter as soon as possible etc.) he expects the process to be hellish (but then he's hired outsiders to do it so he's not so bothered).
he had a look at the EPCs (energy performance certificates) online, all you need is the address and the postcode, he made a list but made no other progress.
horsemouth would summarise the results of his research this way - 11 Ds, 2 Cs and an E please bob (old raver joke).
the consortium of co-ops collapsed early doors. had it managed to stay stuck together this would have meant the government would have picked up half the bill - estimated at £20k per house (this is almost certainly an underestimate). now it looks like the communal endeavour and the remaining co-ops will have to hunt around for funding (or pay for it all themselves out of rental revenue).
there are various (much smaller) pots of funding - horsemouth is going to start investigating them.
a friend has responded to horsemouth's talking of retirement with the latin tag otium cum dignitate where otium here means leisure activities but 'self-realizing' activities - in counter distinction to negotium (or busy-ness). strange that montaigne does not make it onto this list of retiring scholars.
horsemouth is of course only semi-retired, he still has things to do.
in a few more minutes midnight and horsemouth can post up this post and take advantage of the freedom from duty that night affords to read some more of the desmond bagley pot-boiler the spoilers.
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