inexplicable plagues

a possible yellow snow warning (which is not the same as a warning about yellow snow)

more like. rain. lots of rain. 

no kilvert (at least in plommer's selection). he is still in langley burrell.

horsemouth is intrigued by glyn hughes's account of his village millbank, a run down mill town, in millstone grit, reader's union (1975).  

'the calendar of its decay was marked by plagues...

for a year or two, quite inexplicably, many stray, or at least semi-abandoned, dogs menaced the village. one mother, worried about her children's safety, was told by police that they had no power to rid the village of its dogs until the dogs actually bit someone; but before they bit anyone, the bony, ragged dogs vanished as inexplicably as they came...

then there have been plagues of untidiness...

when a village is uncertain of its future, it becomes squalid: there is no point in investing in long term repairs.'

something similar happens in m. john harrison's fictional city of viriconium. most particularly in the third book in viriconium. 

inexplicable plagues. vague portents.

these would all have happened between 1970 (when hughes bought the cottage there) and 1975 (when the book was published). 

at this point horsemouth (in his previous life) would be off round the bookshops tying to find another book by glyn hughes to find out more information. he would have tried the second hand bookshops first (and then coughed and raided the first hand bookshops).

all he can do out here is a few desultory searches on google books and yahoo etc.

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here rainy all day turning into snow as it gets colder. possible bell ringing tonight (weather permitting).  horsemouth is going to wander into the village to pick up the newspaper and some kindling wood. 

above further proof, if proof were necessary, that the youth increasingly have it proper shit (but don't worry there's also stuff about pensions and older people in private rentals on housing benefit).