trial by bells (nous n'irons plus au bois)

yesterday was  a typical day in that horsemouth  was feeling anxious. 

he' d done the chickens. he'd done the abbey. he'd got the bin up from the bottom of the drive. he'd watered the garden and the greenhouse and done a bit of weeding. he'd pegged back the nasturtiums to give the other plants a better chance. 

he'd even been for a quick walk up on the common. 

ideally horsemouth would be able to go and drink without subjecting himself to trail by bells first (but hey-ho). 

but before that there was the locking up the abbey and getting the chickens in. he did some watering as well. 

yesterday a wren got trapped in the conservatory. it took horsemouth a while to shoo it out. eventually he succeeded because it flew into his open back-pack as a dark and safe space. 

musically horsemouth thinks nous n'irons plus au bois will work well (clapping and singing version). similarly he thinks there's a version of le chaland qui passe that could be done (because rob is a big fan of jean vigo and l'atalante). this he thinks is a guitar and vocal one. he's taken a look at learning the words and the chords. 

he should watch l'atalante again. his memory of it is that there is a tune other than le chaland qui passe that plays a similar role in the film and it would be good to get that in too if possible. 

so far he thinks the clapping and singing songs he has sent off to rob have worked well  - travailler c'est trop dur, j'ai vu le loup, mes bourons sont morts etc. largely because they work with the limitations of his recording setup

this is not  to say horsemouth's singing always sounds in tune but because it sounds authentically like it is not. 

the songs with guitar or harmonium have been a bit more problematic because horsemouth's laptop takes exception to recording anything other than the human voice and tries to filter it out as background noise as soon as possible. 

various other recording strategies (hambone, playing rhythmically on the banjolin, recording guitar  etc.) have not yet led to success (or perhaps they will but horsemouth just doesn't know it yet).  

next week it looks like a bit of a heatwave (before fizzling out at the end of the month). 

midnight horsemouth is back from the bell-ringing (and the pub afterwards). the bell-ringing has gone well (as has the pub afterwards). 

the morning a grey coolish morning horsemouth has been over to the chickens and put the milk in the fridge in the garage. in a bit down to the abbey.