after london (ecological succession)

'started for clyro by the usual 8.42 train...' - kilvert, diaries, 13th may 1871. 

kilvert is back in his parish. you can sense he's glad to be back. 

the railway brings him back. the last part of the journey on the railway that used to run between hereford and hay. the one that no longer runs and is replaced by a bus service (and that bus service is replaced by yet another bus service on sundays and bank holidays).

this at least horsemouth hopes. he has plans to make use of it.  a bus on a sunday? have you any idea how rare that is in herefordshire?

herefordshire (as horsemouth is fond of remarking) used to have 50 railway stations. now it has four. 

there is however a network of bus services running on a variety of multi-tasking timetables. horsemouth has a plan to attempt to use the local bus service to get to abergavenny, do some charity shop shopping, and come back. 

for a little while he thought there was a gig on in abergavenny but it turned out to be in aberystwyth (which is literally the other side of the country). 

wish him luck. (it should work ok - and if it doesn't there's a plan b aka. another bus).

he may be doing this or he may be doing a meeting. 

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

horsemouth is out in the wilds. he's waiting for a thunderstorm to arrive. 

'thunder blossoms gorgeously above our heads [...] bleeding rain / dripping rain like golden honey.’ - jean toomer

plenty of thunder (but no rain as yet). 

horsemouth has become very fond of the cover of a hardback edition of after london aka. wild england by richard jefferies. this is one of the great eco-collapse/ everything goes back to nature novels. or rather the first few chapters are, thereafter it all goes a bit rubbish (sad to say but it's true).

'in the castle yard at longtover may still be seen the bones of an elephant which was found dying in the woods near that spot.' 

look at those blues. looks at that green. look at the gold. look at the texture of the binding. 

it begins with an interest in ecological succession - how species compositions change in an ecological community over time, in particular secondary succession, occurring after a disturbance such as fire or habitat destruction. 

horsemouth is interested in the concept of after london now that it seems he may be living it.