'and the thrushes singing like mad...'

'the air early this morning was as warm as the air of a hot-house and the thrushes singing like mad  thinking that spring had come.'  - kilvert, kilvert's diary, 11th january 1872. 

on the 13th kilvert returns to clyro (with a 3 hour lay-over in hereford because he had missed the 12.25 train to hay - but hey at least there was a train to hay). 

possibly zoom beers with howard later. (possibly an egg delivering walk).

'the plague zone had undergone one of its periodic internal upheavals and extended its boundaries another mile. I would care as little as anyone else up here in the high city if it were not for audsley king. her rooms above the rue serpolet now fall within its influence. she is already ill and I am not sure what to do.' - from ashlyme's diary in m. john harrison's in viriconium.

a very neat set-up there. 

'viriconium is all the cities there have ever been.' - audsley king, reminiscences. 

here (in the wild)  it is sunny (but not very warm). freezing over the night (and then raining tomorrow). horsemouth is enjoying the keith jarrett album spirits - this is very much a home-made album (which is the thing horsemouth likes about it). 

'these tapes were made in my studio in new jersey without an engineer and without anything but cassette recorders. they were recorded during the month of may–june 1985 with no purpose other than allowing them to happen; filling a need. the music was not recorded with the intention of release to the public. during the month or so that the project lasted, I would go into the studio every day and "make" something... since I could be in complete control I avoided controlling anything (including the recordings themselves).'

he's just found a basho interview from the night before the bohn gig on the british forces broadcast service (so he'll be commenting on that soon) and a piece by george orwell about working in a bookshop. 

early on in the interview there's an interesting section on basho's creative process, he will be playing a song and have recorded it but after a while he will be 'open' enough to realise that the song needs changing, an additional section will occur to him and its full and proper structure will be realised.