a day that is not christmas eve (a day with no kilvert)

23rd december 1870 - a day with no kilvert (or at least no diary entry). 

horsemouth has consulted thoreau's a writer's journal also, but also in vain. 

there are a number of mixes by howard in previous years so horsemouth has chosen one from this day 7 years ago. his review of the year with (so far) lots of sweet acoustic guitar tunes. ok here we go, six minutes in and it's gone all k-pop. 

(and now it's gone all african) (ah some tokimonsta).

this day is the last day on which it won't be too late to go shopping. 

starting from here what could horsemouth plan to do in the new year

he could plan to play more gigs and he could plan to release another CD. 

what would be on the CD?

well the demo versions of no name resonate, murder ballad, jai guru and high-rise strutters ball (all currently residing on soundcloud). of course if he get in somewhere to play them again or record on top of them they could be made better. 

horsemouth also has versions of gnossienne no.1 and gentleman john sitting around on CD from previous (pre-musicians) solo outings. if he thinks about it there are probably a few unreleased musicians of bremen tracks somewhere. 

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

at this point (monday morning) horsemouth has today's and tomorrow's blog already written (mostly) and he wrote them yesterday (does that make sense). 

he will rewrite them slightly (as he is doing now) as he goes along. he watched some of the parajanov. the first half of which concerns books and seems to have 'inspired' ptere greenaway's prospero's books.  horsemouth has been up, he has unleashed the chickens (one egg), he has his coffee (this may need refueling). 

ok sounds like the business of the day is starting. horsemouth thinks a last bit of shopping. the buses suspend christmas day and boxing day. the milk delivery timetable goes strange.  he's not sure what day his brother and family are coming up. 

'at this point, nothing is predestined'

so says the author of an article on the possible future of a new syria (the balkan scenario, matt broomfield). er, on the other hand they lay out the possible negative outcomes (the balkan scenario) so clearly it seems rhetorically unlikely that syria can escape. 

but maybe it is all still up in the air. 

anyway. here's horsemouth. he heard the bells from the abbey but he failed to go (historical stage fright). 

(maybe he should just try tossing coins to make his decisions for him instead of half making them). 

howard is off visiting people (but then he's also on holiday over c*******s).  his brother is phoning at 8pm. 

is there a still turning point in the year when a new plan can come together? 

perhaps this is the point at which it begins. 

once again horsemouth has failed to purchase christmas gifts. 

in a bit he will go and feed the chickens (he will take refuge in routine). the trick is to leave it slightly late so that they are all gathered in the coop already. he has succeeded in feeding the chickens once again. he hasn't lost any (yet). 

he went to the forge (but he did not walk back). this may explain his slightly off mood (that and that he can't find the right book to read). 

'without books the world would have witnessed nothing but ignorance' - sergei parajanov, the colour of pomegranates.  

howard (the other muscian of bremen) has responded to horsemouth’s asking what he thought of the books horsemouth has lent him.

‘chronicle (of the guayaki indians) would be one I would reread. in fact do I still have it?

loves work I found frightening, but I also loved it. 

practicalities, I read but cannot remember at all, though oddly it prompted me to read more duras.

christ stopped (at eboli) I need to reread. at the time it felt like a slog to read it, and I don’t know why cos it was a gently written book. that would say more about my mood at the time than the book.’

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

it's the morning. it's rainy and grey out there (horsemouth has unleashed the chickens). soon the last of horsemouth's garland of mixcloud mixes. 

book list II ('east wind and struggling snowflakes, bitter miserable cold')

'east wind and struggling snowflakes, bitter miserable cold.' - kilvert on this day 1870

21st december 2024 the winter solstice

horsemouth will probably write a description here. grey cloudy morning at stonehenge. no a-ha moment. better luck at newgrange. 

'happy winter solstice' 

from here on in the days become longer and the sun creeps northward on the horizon. (he does hope he's got that second part right). 

kilvert finds sir gilbert lewis waiting in his garden. kilvert  hears from him about his recently deceased aunt maria kilvert, 

'he told me a good deal about maria kilvert of worcester whom he knew... she shut herself up almost entirely ever since he had been canon of worcester, 15 years. lady lewis used to call and was sometimes admitted. sir gilbert had not called for three years. the house looked most melancholy and dreary, like a house of the dead...' 

book list II

where not actual diaries, journals, autobiographies or essays (mostly) at least that sort of thing. 

the books horsemouth has not lent to howard

- a voice from the chorus by abram tertz (andrei sinyavsky). assembled by tertz (sinyavsky) from letters sent to his wife while he was incarcerated by the soviet authorities. he cannot write directly of where he is (because of the fear of censorship) but he can write about it. in a curious kind of way it resembles montaigne and rousseau (with rousseau tertz shares an admiration for robinson crusoe). 

- pages from the goncourt journal by edmond and jules de goncourt. (jules dies relatively early on)  written at the time and published over the course of edmond's life and after. 

- reveries of a solitary walker by jean-jacques rousseau. allegedly structured round a series of walks. a book unfinished at rousseau's death. the first is written autumn/ winter 1776, the tenth is dated palm sunday1778, the eighth and ninth have been edited from rough drafts, the tenth is unfinished. it was published four years after the author's death in 1782. 

-  kilvert's diary by the reverend francis kilvert. edited by william plommer and published some time after kilvert's death. 

- landscape with machines by l.t.c. rolt. engineer gradually becomes writer. goes to live on narrow boat, helps found inland waterways association.

this is the world we live in (haunted by the better world next door).

'london's ageing!' (to the tune of london's burning). 

hmm. the age profile of london has altered. horsemouth was looking at an infographic on it.  

when horsemouth first arrived in london and then hackney in 1985 or so the population was in decline -' his usual go to for this is paul harrison's inside the inner city -  but then it started filling up again (with immigrants and with the young from elsewhere in the uk). fast forward to 2021 and since 2011 the population has increased by 8% overall. but crucially  a lot of these people are older - there's something like 25%  more 55 to 64 year olds (so horsemouth's demographic) in the city now rather than in 2011. 

horsemouth thinks people of his age moved to the city when it was possible and have stayed ever since

the segments that have gone down between 2011 and 2021 are 16 to 24 year olds and 25 to 34 year olds by roughly 8%. mind you there are roughly 15% more 10 to 15 year olds who will soon filter through (if their parents are not driven out of the city by the cost of it).

a booklists of sorts I

these first four horsemouth has lent to howard at one time or other. 

- practicalities by marguerite duras (french title la vie matérielle). from conversations with jérôme beaujour which were then edited and published while the author was still alive (published on the 1st of june 1987). 

- christ stopped at eboli by carlo levi. carlo is exiled by the italian fascists to a deprived hilltop town in the south of italy. he describes his time there. the book was written in florence from december 1943 to july 1944 after the author had been released. there's a film (hell there's a four hour italian tv drama). 

- love's work by gillian rose. written by rose and published at her death. an autobiography of sorts but the autobiography of a philosopher and a cancer memoir.   

- chronicle of the guayaki indians by pierre clastres (translated by paul auster, translation published after clastres death). rescued from oblivion an anthropologist's report on a tribe heading for oblivion.

horsemouth also lent howard  matsuo basho's the narrow road to the deep north and edouard louis's  a woman's battles and transformations, but he doesn't know if howard read them (he thinks not). 

horsemouth regrets that he does not like montaigne's essays better (it would suit him so well if he did).

alternate worlds/ science fiction

- the man in the high castle by philip k. dick. this is the world we live in (haunted by the better world next door). 

- ice by anna kavan. the world is dying and we are doomed to make the same mistakes over and over. 

- viriconium by m.john harrison. the city is the star. the name of the city changes. its predicament doesn't. 

- frankenstein by mary shelley. the runaway girl rules the roost. she invents the creature - a philosophical novel questioning technology and progress, perhaps the very foundation of the genre of science fiction.  

'it was not a dream, she said'

 a christmas ghost story from kilvert (on this day in 1870).

'the sick woman at cross foot, mary price, cowering before a roaring fire. she said, 'six weeks ago I was in bed at night and suddenly a young one came on my left arm, like a little angel. it was not one of my own. it was dressed in white clothes long and it had a cap like the dear little children when they are put into their coffins.' she told the story in such a strange weird way that I felt uncomfortable. it was not a dream, she said, she was broad awake.' 

horsemouth dreamt of being on the corner of church street and stoke newington high street. he saw sean heading up towards stamford hill. he saw someone else but he didn't look to see who it was. 

here horsemouth re-arranges a blogpost from 20th of december 2020.

'horsemouth tends to regard music making as an eccentric hobby/ bizarre psychological compulsion... he vastly prefers what he does  now to what he did back then (back when there was a record industry, back when there were 'deals' (allegedly)).' 

in 2020 it would have been nice to play some gigs (but, er, it wasn't possible).

since then he has managed to play some gigs but once again only a handful of people have got to hear musicians of bremen. the momentum musicians had built up was almost entirely squandered. 

like most musicians horsemouth guesses he's happy just to get to make the music (but then has no idea how to go about promoting it). horsemouth used to try and delegate that to other people (and now there's only him he's still like that). 

look at rob lawson and zali krishna - there they are creating music and releasing it, writing and releasing books even.in this they are ahead of horsemouth, he has not yet got his words off the screen and onto the printed page.

the music got free but it's an interesting variety of free - the musicians produce it for (nearly) free but there are still streaming companies, record companies etc all of whom barely pay. there's still a music industry (not that horsemouth ever troubled it in his earlier 'career' and not that he's going to trouble it now). horsemouth was glad to embrace myspace (and later soundcloud, mixcloud, youtube and bandcamp) as a way to get his music out past the gatekeepers and to the people. this was the main thing he wanted. 

everyone can now do it and in a way horsemouth thinks everyone should. 

horsemouth's model here is jacques attali's bruits published in english translation as noise: the political economy of music there's a lot here (as it will be read later on) about music as herald of the sharing economy. 

ok. so horsemouth, your mission, should you decide to accept it, more gigs in 2020(5). his aim should be to get up above one gig a year. double figures or death! 

here the dawn and a gentle rain. horsemouth has fed the chickens. later the bell-ringing. 

into the western lands (the round up of the year)

so this is the ninth anniversary of this mix (soon it will be 10). 

the cover photo is horsemouth out in canning town (as photographed by max) a good old nine years ago. . 

another year is rolling to the end. 

tonight the last meeting of the communal endeavour of the year. 

the bid for the EPC C for the houses is in (god only knows when we will get the reply on that).  and, once we get the reply on it, there's another round of all hands on deck as we negotiate with the department of energy security and net zero (or densz as horsemouth calls them) what they are willing to pay for and what they are not willing to pay for. 

tomorrow night the bell-ringing (the area of horsemouth's life where progress is being made).

yesterday the visit to TESCOs and a walk round the common. 

'becoming helpless and infirm he was put upon the parish'  kilvert describes a suicide. 

horsemouth supposes soon there will be round up of the year pieces in the sunday supplements (these will remind him how shit it was). 

so how is the world doing?

well the genocide in gaza continues. but then so does the second congo war. the syrian civil war is halted but then the civil war in sudan continues. (and then there's yemen). ukraine continues for the minute (georgia may follow it soon).

here is a list of conflicts in africa to be going on with and here's a list of ongoing armed conflicts round the world. 

the arab spring has led to widespread carnage. the orange revolution has led to widespread carnage. just say no to democracy says horsemouth (by far and away the best option is to flee). 

will 2025 be worse or better than 2024? it's hard to say really. 

the world will be warmer (because there will be more CO2 in the atmosphere). the attempts to reconfigure capitalism into a net zero form (to alibi this) will continue (meanwhile) the numbers of people fleeing famine and political instability as a result of climate change will rise. islands will sink beneath the sea, low lying states will be flooded more often, drought will strike other regions (and more so). there will be more political instability.

and more people will need to flee.

meanwhile the west will grow older. the proportion of workers to pensioners will decrease. 

horsemouth expects both labour and the conservatives to continue to be shit at politics. he expects nothing labour will do will shift the dial on the economy (they'll just annoy people). he expects there will be no growth (to speak of) and there may even be a further recession. he expects reform to become the third party at the next UK general election (to be held no later than wednesday 15th august 2029), barring something unfortunate like nigel farage's death. 

in terms of domestic politics the next election is a long way off but before that there are council elections (some of them at least 1st may 2025 but not all of them because of local government reorganisation), elections in wales (7th may 2026), scotland (7th may 2026) and northern ireland (6th may 2027). 

so there are plenty of opportunities for disgruntled electorates to register their disgruntlement either by staying away or by showing up and voting for the 'toys-out-the-pram' party (reform for example). 

does horsemouth expect more racist rioting (of the type we have seen in 2024) in 2025? 

er. hmm. yes he does.  (he doesn't see why not). 

'that liar and thief of the world sarah thomas... is gone'

horsemouth is off to TESCOs so this will be necessarily brief. he has a written yesterday blogpost to go so he will be OK. 

'that liar and thief of the world sarah thomas... is gone'

so writes kilvert (somewhat uncharitably) in his diary on this day in 1870. it is the start of a period of daily diary entries. he's back in clyro (the most interesting parts of his diary). 

there's more information on the recently deceased maria kilvert that if anything makes the whole episode even more gothic.  

horsemouth has another copy of kilvert's diaries back in london (it looks like this) he will be having a look through it to see if there is any more in it, or anything different in it, to that  collected by plomer in the three volume edition at his parents (the one he is currently reading).  

eventually kilvert will leave and for much of the rest of his life  be back in chippenham (and it will be less interesting). in volume two of plomer's selection kilvert leaves clyro. he leaves on the 2nd september 1872  (returning only for three weeks in march 1873). 

tomorrow another christmas golden glow with horsemouth as selector. it is the first ever selection by horsemouth from 18th december 2015 (soon it will be 10 years of this nonsense). horsemouth is giving it a listen right now. right now a great sproatley smith track (blackthorn winter). right now a roomful of german nursery school students in cardboard robot costumes sing kraftwerk.

starmerville

horsemouth was wrong. they won't be called jenrickvilles after all. 

this concerns the conversion of now un-needed office buildings in cities into sub-standard accommodation. now this will substantially happen under a labour government (rather than a conservative one). 

horsemouth proposed the name jenrickvilles by analogy with the hoovervilles or squatter camps of the american depression (horsemouth guesses we would now say the first american depression). apparently there was a later reaganville. but of course now there is just the normalisation of homeless encampments and people sleeping in their cars. 

raynervilles anyone? healeyvilles? starmervilles? 

horsemouth thinks they will be called starmervilles. 

two dialogues from alan plater's the land of green ginger (1973)

- 'why? why shouldn't people do decent jobs and have decent lives... and live where they want to live. why mike?'

- 'cos we're all alike. we don't know any better. we let them get away with it because we don't know any better.' 

defeated by circumstances and conditions (by the conjuncture) a couple split. she goes back to london and on to a job abroad, he goes off onto the fishing boats (even though it's a dying industry). 

- 'did you find the land of green ginger?'

- 'no. we didn't look hard enough.' 

there's a clip where plater discusses it. he discusses the fact that not much happens in it. he discusses the outreach to the people of hull about it  and that, only a few years later, now that couldn't happen because of the centralised control of  tv and radio production. 

and yet there is a hope, a demand, for change. and it is there in a 1973 bbc play for today. 

‘all the movies put together make one movie of a life’ -  robert kramer film-maker. there's a piece on him in the new new left review.  they see him as a film-maker of the end of radical dreams. 

horsemouth is recovering from the anxiety he gets after drinking (the hangxiety). the anxieties are restoring themselves to their proper tasks and times. silly old mule.

it's the monday morning. tomorrow the trip to tescos. 

yesterday afternoon joe moocha was on the radio. an old school hip-hop set (stetsasonic, eric b and rakim, just-ice and krs one 'going way back') cut with moocha's own programmed cell death and east africa records  mixes. 

horsemouth would be there but he's out of town

so triple negative will be at the cafe OTO christmas fair today from 11am -6pm (allegedly).

horsemouth would be there but he's out of town (as with the coltrane home gig in brooklyn last night). 

at cafe OTO today you may pick up triple negative's  records, cassettes, CDs, books and drawings (horsemouth guesses) but probably not this recording (which is download only) horsemouth guesses. maybe there's a way to do it. 

horsemouth particularly likes the cover of this recording because it shows (what he presumes is) matthew's drawing/ lettering style. 

there is something undeniably filthy about their recordings (and even their text). look at this sample title return of the living dirt. look at all that excessive detail not aimed at providing a warm life-affirming counter-cultural experience (what is the point of it? it's just sound or scrawl in the wrong place). 

they are kind of the anti-ECM/ the anti-wyndham hill. they have found the secret stash of toxic musical waste. the work done on the garment will not vanish into the coat it remains hideously apparent.

the nearest thing to it horsemouth thinks it some sort of cross between african headcharge  and PIL circa the flowers of romance.

there's other stuff from other bands there but horsemouth would mainly want to pick up some of matthew's drawings. he has some cassettes from the time of feral wingwalker in a box somewhere. 

earlier (saturday evening) zoom beers (two) with howard (and howard had some baileys too plus he'd been for a pint up the big empty pub earlier for a read).  howard is talking about a release schedule for all his stockpiled stuff. this would be good opines horsemouth. 

earlier still horsemouth was off up the forge (and back). 

this morning he has slept poorly due to a mixture of paranoia, anxiety and poor temperature regulation. he worries that he has bollixed something up, similarly he worries that he has blabbed and that now the forces of repression will develop an interest in his misdemeanors from 40 years ago (frankly this is a bit  unlikely). 

a friend has reassured him that his name (horsemouth) has not come up in the inquiry and for horsemouth this confirms the essential correctness of living his life as a donkey.

 

abolish the difference of time (2024 goes out and 2025 comes in)

'it began to snow again last evening, but soon ceased...' 

saturday the 14th. see it's just not a scary is it. 

in 1855 thoreau makes a long report on nature full of different birds and their sounds.in 1841 he is reading the old scottish poet douglas (probably gavin douglas), he finds a passage he likes (a description of a sunset). 

'any living word in their books abolishes the difference of time.' 

yesterday's blogpost went well. horsemouth had several things he wanted to tell you but nothing in particular also. 

horsemouth will now re-post and  re-edit his blogpost from 31st december 2022 (where he has changed the text he has underlined it). 

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

horsemouth has had an even more moderate year than last year (or the year before) in terms of cultural production. 

he played only one gig last year, a duo gig with howard at waterintobeer (thanks martin) on a bill with lou. thanks to the people from waterintobeer for taking photographs. musicians of bremen  added eyepennies by sparklehorse to their set, played versions of amarach and am I born to die, and horsemouth sang a version of go your way (my love) based on the anne briggs version.

horsemouth did no filming or recording in 2024 (some recordings from 2022 languish unfinished on soundcloud).  horsemouth played some guitar with pete (but no gigs were played or sessions recorded). he bought no new musical instruments. 

horsemouth was involved in no golden glow (or similar) mixes in 2024

he thanks howard and all who have read, watched, listened to him, or liked or commented on the things he has produced (thank you people, horsemouth is very grateful).

2024 was his third full year of retirement. (following on from his redundancy nearly three and a half years ago).

for yet another year he didn’t manage a foreign holiday. 

he kept on writing this blog (a daily duty) and kept scribbling in a variety of physical diaries.

he read a fair bit (though not with the concentrated effort that he has managed in previous years). he watched a lot of clips on youtube. he didn't listen to much of his existing music collection (he did not get around to replacing his amplifier). he listened to webb david's techno-dub show on new river radio, and the music of  robert lawson. 

robert, dave, lou, triple negative, alula down, jacken  and martin all released recordings. 

all in all a surprisingly good year for music. he has taken up trying to learn bell-ringing.

he saw alula down play in malvern and (backing jacken elswyth) play in camden. he saw  charlie parr and two white cranes  in hackney (thanks mike), lou and leo and the water chorus at waterintobeer (thanks martin), ruth crawford-seeger 'three chants for women's chorus' at the QEH foyer (thanks QEH), minny pops (thanks iona), triple negative, evan parker and bill nace (thanks cafe OTO), the renaissance music festival in  crystal palace (killercorp, concrete age, die|kur etc. thanks enza), stick in the wheel and laura cannell at cafe OTO (thanks howard), 

he did a fair amount of walking. over to ewyas harold, back from the forge. up on the common. down by the abbey, down to the post box, and over to sylvia's. he did not visit hereford much or get away to the wen as much as he would have liked. he visited malvern and made an unscheduled stop off in worcester. 

the communal endeavour survived and the decarbonisation campaign started up (again). 

friday 13th in the wilds/ saturday night in brooklyn/ sunday afternoon in dalston

 an entirely written in the morning blogpost

saturday night in brooklyn an event for the john and alice coltrane home featuring roshni somlal (of the brooklyn raga massive). 

meawhile in dalston sunday afternoon there's the cafe OTO christmas fair (horsemouth hates christmas but he recommends you go anyway). triple negative will be there (or at least there will be a chance to purchase their music and their merch (including drawings)). 

horsemouth hopes you enjoyed the golden glow mix from yesterday (well 3 years ago yesterday).  the next one is due on the 18th and the final one for the christmas season on the 24th.

  

but meanwhile (again) it is friday 13th (again) and horsemouth is in the wilds.  he has no plans for the day. he is back from bell-ringing. slow progress is being made (and then beer was drunk). 

it is 1851 and thoreau is out in the wilds (famously). he has been working as a surveyor and this provides some release and distraction. 

'this varied employment, to which my necessities compel me, serves instead of foreign travel and the lapse of time. if it makes me forget some things which I ought to remember, it no doubt enables me to forget many things which it is well to forget. by stepping aside from my chosen path so often, I see myself better and am enabled to criticise myself. of this nature is the only true lapse of time. it seems an age since I took walks and wrote in my journal...' - thoreau, december 13th 1851. 

12+12=24 (this may be the last time)

ok so facebook seems to be on the fritz this evening.

so horsemouth was here. and he was listening to a retrospective of val lewton (and thus jacques tourneur). 

but then he realised that it was the anniversary of the release of the first of his christmas carol of golden glow mixes. this time from 2021. it was the last of the six he did.  these are mixes with the tunes selected by horsemouth (mostly) and the mix assembled by howard. the photo on the front cover is by either enza or suke and is from the pre-production of the fall of the house of fitzgerald. 

horsemouth (the magician) places himself within the vertices of kandinsky. 

''this may... this may be my the last time

this may... this may be my last time children

this may... this may be my last time

maybe my last time I don't know...'  sing the staple singers.

today a visit from his uncle john and auntie june (and then some bell-ringing maybe). 

the humming of the political machine

the commons project people at the tate gallery, especially anna and hannah catherine jones for the session they put together which was the inspiration for this track now collected on the download version of musicians of bremen volume four. 

originally  a group of people humming in unison recorded on a phone in the tate modern. we set our music to this.

once a piece of sound has been recorded it is set free to do other work from that originally intended. horsemouth responded to the notes he could hear in the humming itself (and, later on, the notes in the trumpet solo that leak in from another exhibit). he then played two tracks of guitar in response to it (one tuned daddad and the other dad*ad -* g, f#, f?).  

his inspiration here is more the jansch/ renbourn bluesy/ jazzy noodling than his usual american primitive style. 

he added a track of the out of tune harmonium playing two adjacent notes so that by interference the correct drone note would be produced (subsequently turned down). howard added some tracks of singing and improvised lyrics and a track of improv on the banjolele (subsequently turned down).

horsemouth was very fortunate in how it turned out (it was fortunate the trumpet came in nicely - horsemouth has no idea what he would have done if it hadn't). 

he guesses that an earlier version may exist somewhere with more of the harmonium and the banjolele on it. 

------------------ 

so what is horsemouth up to today? the egg walk and the walking the waste bin down the drive. his mum is off to the village and the forge. 

 

the happy- clappy world of facebook

'that stormy petrel frederick rolfe, the self-styled baron corvo, spent the years 1895 to 1898 in holywell, under the name of father austin, first printing a series of banners for the roman catholic church, and later as chief contributor to the  holywell record. it is impossible not to marvel at the complaisance of those who employed him. for his vitriolic articles set the town by the ears , and caused the newspaper's circulation to wane until it ceased publication.' 

1906 finds rolfe in crickhowell at gwernvale; 'frederick rolfe ('baron corvo') spent many weeks there as a guest of the pirie-gordon family, until he showed himself in his true colours and the hospitable house closed its doors to him.'  (both of these references are from welsh border country by maxwell fraser). 

christmas vegetables

well there are plenty of leaks and just enough brussel sprouts for everybody who wants them to have a decent(ish) portion. there's some beetroot and some chard.  there are potatoes (in a sack and in the ground). there are plenty of apples and damsons. the carrots are long gone. the runner beans likewise (unless there's some frozen somewhere). 

ok horsemouth is back from the forge. 

horsemouth thought it was the black cat but it's the crow. 

his mum's just gone over to the woodshed with the log basket (that's probably horsemouth's cue to go over there and carry it back).

it's now a tuesday morning. horsemouth is uncertain what the plan is for the day. he is worried that the plan involves relying on the local buses (they are only reliable monday, thursday and friday). 

four years ago horsemouth and a friend were worrying about what the tories might get up to 'push state retirement age up to 80, the introduction of top-up fees some NHS services and a 2 decade wage freeze in the public sector.' of course all this still looks possible, it will just be labour doing it. 

this morning a friend request. horsemouth wonders what is going on there. it is the least likely person to join in the happy- clappy world of facebook. 

'tales of the black mountain' (kilvert returns to clyro)

good morning! good morning!

on this day in 1870 kilvert returns to clyro.  

he interviews archenfield (a 77 year old shoemaker) whose forefathers had lived on the northern side of the black mountains for 300 years... 

'he told me of the three chieftains' graves near twyn y beddau between ashford and achalofty, the sole remaining monuments of the great battle fought on the mountain in the reign of edward III. near the same place stood the church of st. cellon built by cellon, son of caractacus and brother of ifon. st. paul converted caractacus and cellon at rome. cellon returned to britain and built this christian church and when st. paul visited britain he crossed the black mountain and preached in this church...'  

in this he repeats the theory found in st. paul in britain; or, the origin of british as opposed to papal christianity (written by richard williams morgan of the ancient british church and published in 1861). the book and others by morgan had an influencing effect on the development of neo-celtic christianity, suggesting the early entry of christianity into britain by the apostle paul, simon zelotes and joseph of aramathea.

morgan's lifetime saw both the heyday and the demise of the story in wales, which began earlier than  morgan with works written by bishop thomas burgess. 

we will hear no more from kilvert until the 17th. no kafka until the 25th. thoreau  we will hear from on december 12th and 13th 1851.

following on from kilvert's purchase of faust at worcester's foregate street railway station we find arthur machen also purchasing books at railway stations. 

'he bought de quincey's confessions of an english opium-eater at pontypool road railway station, the arabian nights at hereford railway station, and borrowed don quixote from mrs. gwyn, of llanfrechfa rectory....' - hando, f.j., (1944) the pleasant land of gwent – chapter nine.

when horsemouth types this it is sunday afternoon. it has gone dark out there already as we move towards the winter solstice (saturday 21st december sunrise 08:18 sunset16:03). (ok horsemouth is just off to lock up the chickens).  earlier a walk on the common.

this evening wolf hall. 

for the tree that has sheared in half in the bottom field horsemouth worries that further strong winds will snap the remainder of it. horsemouth will now think about clearing enough space in the woodshed for the logs from it eventually. 

his real worry is a big silver birch growing on the banking uphill from the house - now if that were to fall on any part of the roof that would be real trouble. 

horsemouth's monday he expects to be take up with a journey to the forge (and back again). thursday evening bell-ringing (and probably the pub after). saturday afternoon zoom beers with howard (probably) after another journey to the forge. 

people rejoice. the second deadliest conflict of the 21st century is drawing to a close

an entirely written in the morning blogpost

horsemouth has just added pagodas his version of various parts from claude debussy's piano piece pagodes. he's slightly regretful about the title - it should have been primitive american pagodas or cuban pyramids or thunderbolt pagoda or something like that but at the last minute he bottled out. howard always favours short snappy one word titles. 

horsemouth on guitars, organ, crash cymbal and marching drum.

howard on production 

anyway it still sounds good to him. it's the most guitar-y of his tunes. its inspirations? well the debussy piano piece crossed with john fahey's classical borrowings, albatross by fleetwood mac, that part of another green world by eno that used to head up arena (mostly because of its habanera rhythm that resembles the one debussy opens his piece with). 

horsemouth hadn't worked out an ending for it (because he never thought he's get to the end of it) so it just splutters to a halt. 

the crash cymbal was a happy addition. the cymbal and stand (cheap CB ones) he found  in a bin. the drum he found on the street also. 

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

it looks like the assad regime in syria is falling. but falling to what? and at what price?

'the war has resulted in an estimated 470,000–610,000 violent deaths, making it the second-deadliest conflict of the 21st century, after the second congo war.' -  wikipedia

'the syrian population has been brutalized, with nearly a half a million killed, 12 million fleeing their homes to find safety elsewhere, and widespread poverty and hunger.' - the united states institute for peace (early 2023). 

so people of the world rejoice. the second deadliest conflict of the 21st century is drawing to a close (maybe). 

had you heard of first deadliest conflict of the 21st century? the second congo war? it is way out in front with 5.4 million deaths. (horsemouth was aware that there was a war going on but he wasn't aware of the scale of it).

'the second congo war and its aftermath caused an estimated 5.4 million deaths, primarily due to disease and malnutrition, making it the deadliest conflict since world war II, according to a 2008 report by the international rescue committee. however, this figure has been disputed, with some researchers arguing that many of the deaths may have occurred regardless of the war and that the actual death toll was closer to 3 million...' (wikipedia) 

'just blew in from the windy city...'

it is due to get windy - like 60 plus miles an hour on saturday. horsemouth was due to wander up to the forge again to pick up the newspapers but he'll see where the weather is. here he's waiting for it to start. 

'meteorological winter starts on december 1st and lasts until the last day of february. It covers the 3-month period that is statistically the coldest quarter of the year, so all official winter stats are taken in this period.'

horsemouth wakes up in the morning. half a tree has been snapped off at the bottom of the bottom field. fortunately it has fallen his mum's side of the fence (and not in the road where it would be blocking traffic). 

he's been over to feed the chickens but he's not letting them out (in case they blow away). 

there are a number of tall trees nearish to the house it is these that horsemouth worries about. he doesn't want any of them falling on the house itself risking damage to the roof. he doesn't want any of them to fall and risk taking out the power cables or the phoneline. 

(if that happens horsemouth will be unable to post up his blog)

lionel shriver has been getting after michael gove (now editor of the spectator) for his response to covid while in government first in the pages of the spectator and then in an interview.

she wondered out loud why there had to be an element of compunction, why it couldn't just be managed with appeals to people's self-interest. for instance today is a very windy day, the official advice is to stay home, horsemouth thinks people will have no problem taking it. 

now horsemouth thought the government (after a slow start) broadly got this right, that lockdown was necessary and that elements of compunction ('you must stay home') were necessary because brits are not swedes.  people don't like to discuss covid though, they wish to forget, it is unassimilable to wider political debates. (it has, however, driven a lot of people crazy). 

further to a recent gig there's a gwenifer raymond out and about in brighton video, at 1.09 gwenifer is in a used record store in brighton and she pulls out a copy of alice coltrane's atomic peace. earlier she is at home and pulls out a copy of eggland by the lovely eggs (cover designed by her brother). now that horsemouth thinks about it they are named after a mikhail bulgakov short story, 

she makes the point that guitarist isn't her main job. she makes her money in computer games design. 

'to providence to lecture' (golden valley parkway)

'to providence to lecture' - thoreau, this day in 1854.

by railway (though the river is frozen and he considers skating). 

horsemouth is back from the bell-ringing. it's another day with an entirely written in the morning blogpost. as usual he feels a bit brain dead. he has his coffee. he has unleashed the chickens and taken the milk over to the garage. 

the weather is decent. 

of course horsemouth would like a railway station a mile and a half down the road (blue dot). this is even though the main use of it for him - getting back and fore to london more easily -  is ending. what it will do is drive up the price of houses locally (horsemouth thinks) but he is less bothered by this than he might otherwise be.  it will probably drive more tourism (the golden valley, walking, cycling, the abbey, orcop hill etc.). with a bit of luck it will drive more housebuilding locally (particularly council house building) but horsemouth doubts it. 

a railway station at pontrilas (the proposed golden valley parkway) would allow easier access to abergavenny and hereford, to newport and to leominster, to cardiff and to ludlow, and ultimately to london, manchester and birmingham.

there is an existing bus service but there are only 6 or so buses each day with the last at 6pm or so (one every 2 hours) compared to a train abergavenny to hereford every half hour or so and running to much later at night.

the rats are leaving the sinking ship (and a haiku)

'eggs. there and back again. 1 mile.

is that a haiku?' -  co-operatively authored poem.

'chickens escaped again?'  contributed a friend.

perhaps,

'eggs. there and back again. 1 mile.

chickens escaped again'

is a better poem. 

nothing much happening on the diary front

the rats are leaving the sinking ship. the ravens are leaving the tower. and tim montgomerie is leaving the tories.

tim montgomerie is leaving the tories for reform.

who is tim montgomerie? the founder of the conservative home forum. a pundit frequently on tv and mainstream media. a kind of super-activist ('one of the most important conservative activists of the past 20 years').

the other tory to reform jumpers (lee anderson, andrea jenkyns) are small beer in comparison. chancers who bring nothing to the party. deadweight. 

it's the morning. a greyish morning. no rain until this afternoon though (allegedly).

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

let us return our thoughts to decarbonisation

the insulating social housing up to an EPC C standard with little over-performance doesn't really accomplish it because people will still be heating with gas (mostly). it is just that they will either be heating less (a little decarbonisation) or perhaps even heating their houses more (thus alleviating their fuel poverty).  similarly with solar panels (because people on the whole don't tend to heat with the electricity that solar panels generate in winter).

the way forward to decarbonisation is to replace gas combi boilers with air source heat pumps at scale having insulated the properties up to a nice low 90kwh/m2/year heating requirement, at this level the heat pump should not be more expensive to run that gas central heating (er. in an EPC D house).

the current government scheme does not do this having prioritised getting numbers of properties up to a bare EPC C standard. 

of course these calculations are based on the current disparity between gas and electricity costs per kwh of heat. but of course this disparity could change. smart meters combined with batteries allow people to take advantage of differential pricing - buying electricity when it is cheap. however this means that customers without batteries are forced to buy at more expensive 'peak' times.  

but then we get into capacity problems of the national electricity grid. the wind generation is in the north (off the coast of scotland) the majority of the population is in the south east (where the uk's unipolar development strategy concentrates them). if you are heating entirely with electricity then electricity usage will at least double (even with heat pumps) and all this has to be transmitted down from scotland. 

one way to ameliorate this problem is to increase the amount of solar (and whisper it wind) generation in the south east. 

so where were we? 

horsemouth thinks the government is correct - fabric first insulation measures first. he then expects that people will want solar panels next (not because they've made a detailed cost-benefit analysis but because the idea is just nicer) and if they want solar panels they will probably want batteries (because they won't want to be giving away all that nicely generated solar power on a sunny day for free). finally people will be persuadable to having heat pumps fitted. 

the all property up to an EPC C deadline for social housing is in 2030. 

horsemouth expects this to be missed by many of the larger social housing organisations whose rental income was mercilessly scalped by the government a few years ago. he expects it to be missed by many of the smaller social housing organisations who simply lack the resources and experience to comply with it. 

and again horsemouth catastrophises and imagines the sheer amount of conflict within the communal endeavour that all these change will produce. but perhaps he's wrong and it will be all plain(ish) sailing. 

of course the technological fix aspect of decarbonisation is in many ways bargaining. the thing science and technology is good at is creating technological fixes but whether these will effectively reduce the amount of carbon and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in a timely enough fashion is a moot point. these measures are deployed within the structure of capitalism and in line with its aims also.

it simply might not be sufficiently profitable to save the world (ameliorate the effects of climate crisis such that humanity survives). in any event climate crisis is likely to render much of the globe essentially uninhabitable and ruin food security globally. 

the belief must be (for the super rich) that there are places where they can go where they will be safe and insulated from the consequences of world system collapse. 

horsemouth ponders decarbonisation

nothing much happening on the diary front so horsemouth has chosen to ponder decarbonisation (close up) 

£1.29 billion has been allocated by the government  for the warm homes: social housing fund wave 3 as part of the autumn 2024 budget. it is to be delivered from from april 2025 until april 2028.

2025/2026 2026/2027 2027/2028

£374 million £459 million £459 million

that's an awful lot of money (but there are an awful lot lot of homes).

horsemouth's lot (the communal endeavour) have got their application in. 

now it's just a matter of waiting until the competition is decided and then the agreeing of details and the signing of agreements begins. last time the government were somewhat tardy in informing people if they had been successful. horsemouth expects the same this time but there's no definite detail or firm date as yet. 

if they don't get the government money horsemouth thinks his lot will be going ahead anyway (they may have to stretch the schedule out). in any even they need all the co-op owned properties up to an EPC (energy performance certificate) C rating by 2030 or they're in trouble with the regulator. 

as it stands they have a plan for the 8 co-op owned houses (and the 6 flats in houses) but have not surveyed the 12 co-op owned flats (in local authority or similar blocks). 3 of these flats are in local authority blocks that are being worked on already. horsemouth guesses that with the boiler upgrades the co-op has done already the majority of these flats will be at an EPC C already but he could do with knowing for sure if any of them aren't. 

assuming all goes well horsemouth would expect to start the wave 3 scheme in april and be beginning to deliver measures in june/july. once it is all up and running that would probably be the time to look at the flats. 

horsemouth is fast coming to a realisation that he will be leaving the co-op sooner rather than later and so will not be around to see all this in its full beauty/ horror. horsemouth thinks a generational change is under way - he thinks himself, l1, e1 (and perhaps p1) are off to the great communal endeavour  retirement home in the sky. this would leave l2, j, e2, k, s, v, p2, and g (the serial abstainer).

of course at some point it all ceases to be horsemouth's problem.  

yesterday he put up more of the chicken wire (badly) and went for a 45 minute walk on the common. he'll need a third roll to complete the fencing. he'll also need to go back and bury  the bottom of the wire to make it difficult for the hens to tunnel underneath it. it's not a thing of beauty (especially close up) but it will do. 

'I am 30 years old today. well, well, well.'

 an entirely written in the morning blogpost

'I am 30 years old today. well, well, well.' writes kilvert on this day in 1870. 

after breakfast at college green kilvert and his parents return to the star to pick up their luggage and go their separate ways - his parents via shrub hill, kilvert via foregate street. he buys a copy of faust in an english translation at foregate street station. back in hereford he walks from the barrs court to the moorfields station (and presumably back to hay). 

plomer tells us nothing more about him until the 8th when he is back in clyro. 

yesterday horsemouth walked to ewyas harold (across the common) then down to wynnstays then back to by the dog to get the bus back. roughly 1.8 miles. for some of it he was carrying two rolls of chicken wire in his rucksack (he is undertaking a reinforcement of the fence round the chicken enclosure). fortunately he had timed it right to get the bus back. 

he thinks he will need two more rolls of wire to complete the job. 

horsemouth has started  repackaging his nonsense (from this blogspot and from his facebook page) onto substack.

please feel free to follow him there also. to be honest if you are following him here and on his blogspot you won't be missing much  but if you only call in here once in a while you may find the repackaging of his nonsense on substack more digestible.

similarly he has been repackaging his book reviews onto goodreads. if that is what you value about him that is perhaps more concentrated place to find it. 

the funeral for maria kilvert (several dreadful struggles)

in 1870 it is the day of the funeral for maria kilvert.  

'the coffin had been brought downstairs and was waiting in the hallway covered with the black velvet sweeping soft pall, white bordered. boom went the great bell of the cathedral. church was over...

boom went the great bell again. the coffin went out immediately and the pall bearers filed out in pairs after it., taking their places and holding each his pall tassel on either side...

the bearers had been selected not at all with reference to their fitness for the task... the coffin seemed very heavy. as the procession moved across college green to the cloister arch, the men struggled under the weight and the coffin lurched and tilted to one side over the short bearer...

... there was a dreadful struggle at the steps leading up from the cloister to the door. the bearers were quite unequal to the task and the coffin seemed crushingly heavy. there was a stamping and a scuffling, a mass of struggling men swaying to and fro, pushing and writhing and wrestling while the coffin sank and rose and sank again. once or twice I thought the whole mass of men must have been down together with the coffin atop them and some one killed or maimed at least...

in the choir there was another dreadful struggle to let the coffin down. the bearers were completely outweighted, they bowed and bent and nearly fell and threw the coffin down on the floor. when it was safely deposited we all retired to seats right and left...' 

later the will is read (kilvert's father is not so badly off as at first appeared - he does better than a few rose bushes). it now seems to horsemouth that kilvert's worrying about his father and mother being done done is a projection, kilvert himself could do with being richer, with having some prospects.

kilvert shows considerable comic timing in these passages (and those concerning the disgruntled and unwelcoming servants of the house). it is the most liberty plomer (his editor) allows him.

at the end (that evening) a peal of bells. 

''that is for miss kilvert,' whispered the officious ladies' maid to me in the porch.' 

up the field the deer is back picking its way cautiously along the hedge (horsemouth wonders where it is getting in). horsemouth supposes it is after the windfall apples. 

horsemouth wants to get on with re-doing the fencing round the hen's enclosure. the wire is old and prone to fray and break. his plan is to wander into the village with a rucksack and pick up some more wire. he'd also like to get some more small paving slabs (to finish off the path round the raised beds). 

horsemouth is up (wait let him go and get some more coffee).

'walked to hay and took the 11.30 train to hereford...' - kilvert's diary, 1st december 1870.

this is (of course) no longer possible. one would have to take the bus. 

on the train he gets into a conversation with 'a lady in the carriage who had lately come from warsaw'.

at worcester he is guided to his aunt's house on college green by a girl with a baby. in the library of the house he finds his parents. he goes upstairs to visit the body of his aunt;

'the dead woman 80 years old lay in her coffin, a lead coffin fitted into an outer one of dark oak and lined with white satin. the coffin lid with its brass breastplate leaned upright in a corner of the room. the face that lay still, frozen down into silence, in the coffin was a very remarkable one. it was a distinguished face with aristocratic features. a firm mouth, fine highly formed nose delicately and sharply cut. there was a slight frown and concentration of the brows. it was the face of a person of considerable ability, stern, sever and perhaps a little contemptuous...' 

it may be surmised that the lead and oak coffin will be heavy (so will it prove).

after a walk around town with his father francis kilvert goes off to spend the night at the star inn.

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

'horsemouth is up. he's wearing a jumper. he has finished his coffee (boo-hoo). grey day outside' - horsemouth's blog, date unknown.

horsemouth is up (wait let him go and get some more coffee). there he's turned the page so all the calendars show december. we are into the darkest month of the year.  soon enough the fake solstice festival that will not be named (and a visit from his brother's family). 

yesterday horsemouth got the bus up to the forge and then walked back (about 4 miles including the walk to the bus stop).  later there were two zoom beers with howard. it looks like howard's letter will be arriving (horsemouth has paid the fine to release it from letter jail). before that howard was up the big empty pub writing and reading again.