Lots of mending, gravelling, tarring and installing huge networks of temporary traffic lights going on, plus people changing the bulbs in the street lights and a lost fire engine.
June 2022 had twice as much rain as June 2021 but half a kWh more sunshine, making it our third best June ever. Average temperatures were within a fraction of a degree of last year’s averages.
Admin1 is reading The Vinyl Detective: Attack and Decay by Andrew Cartmel. Admin2 is reading The Botanist by MW Craven.
Category: Uncategorized
Rusty Eyes
Somebody has had a bit of fun with this corroded junction box.
Admin1 is reading The Hiding Place by Simon Lelic, a compulsive investigation into bullying and a subsequent 22-year-old murder at a boarding school. As both Admins went to boarding schools, this rang very true 🙁 .
Admin2 is reading The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, a disturbing pre-WWII novel in which a Jew trying to escape the Nazis travels round and round Germany by train, without ever finding a way out. (If only Europe had had open borders and tolerance of asylum seekers.)
We scored 9 on the GSQ.
May the Fourth Be With You
An escaped number balloon trapped on a telephone wire catches the sun as a bird flies by.
Admin1 is reading Rewind by Catherine Ryan Howard. Admin2 is reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. Wind and rewind.
Log Off
The remains of a tree waiting for the dustcart.
Admin1 is reading When Silence Kills by Mark Griffin, a competent and readable crime story. Admin2 is rereading Eye in the Sky by Philip K Dick. Last time she read it, the name of the character Bill Laws meant nothing to her, but for the last 30 or so years Bill Laws has been one of her in-Laws.
Silver Paper
At our family dinner tonight (stroggers and blood orange drizzle cake) Gez was drawing on a silver sweet wrapper with a toothpick. We did not see it, but here is a photo of a cat rendered to look like silver paper.
Admin1 is reading Black Summer and Admin2 is reading The Puppet Show, both by MW Craven.
We scored 11.5 on the GSQ.
Goodbye Christmas
The baubles have had their year in the sun; now they are going back in their box in the dark cupboard. Sorry shiny balls.
Admin2 is reading The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown by Vaseem Khan.
Chiaroscuro
Admin2 is much enjoying A History of Pictures by David Hockney and Martin Gayford (thx Admin1) and since it was a dull day weatherwise here is a fake oil painting of the master in his studio.
Admin1 is reading The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown by Vaseem Khan.
Illumination
Christmas Lights Man seems not to have quite finished his display but here are a lit up tree and a luminous festive figure. Admin2 went looking for Geminid meteors in a sky that was very clear between the clouds on a night that was warmer than the day, but did not see any.
Admin1 is reading Too Much of Water by LC Tyler. Admin2 is reading The Dying Day by Vaseem Khan.
Patch Invasion
People from up the road celebrating that they have succeeded in colonising the traffic island which is legally part of our territory. Well I hope the people who gave them £500 to install a bench and gazebo on “The Green” were impressed by the massive turnout.
Admin1 is reading Dolphin Junction by Mick Herron. Admin2 is reading The Dutch House by Ann Patchett; a brother and sister turfed out of their iconic house by their wicked stepmother.
Zoom Room
Welcome Lena to another cold-ridden two-house quiz meal. We had baked chicken and apple strudel and scored just 9.
Admin1 is reading The Girls Beneath by Ross Armstrong and Admin2 is reading Borderliners by Peter Hoeg.
Déjà vu
Not a photo from today, when it was freezing cold and precipitating snow, ice and graupel, but from April 4 2012 when we wrote:
“Hard to believe that a week ago we had daytime temperatures of over 25 degrees, and that three days ago the solar panels served up over 8 kilowatts…”
Plus ça change plus c’est la même chose!
Thubms up for the NHS!
Admin2 was feeling somewhat under the weather and had extremely minor chest pains for a few days so she called 111 and they sent an ambulance. Ambulance men found nothing much wrong but recommended the hospital for another test, which Admin2 failed. Not corona but a coronary. To while away the many hours, she read A Climate of Fear by Fred Vargas, which had a very complicated plot linking Icelandic mythology with the French Revolution, eventually untangled by the free-associating detective Adamsberg.
Breaking the (Bottle) Bank
Oh no! The bin is broken and the bottles have fallen out!
Admin1 is reading False Value by Ben Aaronovitch and Admin2 is reading The Art of Dying by Ambrose Parry. New books! Thanks, Admin2 🙂
Adventure
Part of the Living Advent Calendar.
Admin1 is reading Cold Justice by Lee Weeks — Cold Comfort Farm without the jokes. Started off OK but descended into ludicrous melodrama.
Admin2 is reading The Explosion Chronicles by Yan Lianke; a parable of untrammelled growth.
Change of Address
You may have been redirected here from http://vermilionsands.eu/blog.
Please note: this redesigned, commentable, phone-friendly blog now has a new URL:
http://vermilionsands.uk/blog
Fouling a Lamp-post
Two stickers, each featuring a piece of shit.
Admin2 is reading The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee; a Bengali family saga with added maths.
We scored 11.1 on the GWQ; thanks zoomers!
Game On
Admin1’s new game is Watch Dogs: Legion set in a strangely realistic London that even includes Admin2’s one-time flat (above The Old Chest, though it was not called that then).
We are watching Roadkill which includes London scenes that strangely echo the game.
Admin1 is reading When It Grows Dark by Jorn Lier Horst.
We scored 9 on the GWQ.
Dig It
Could not find a photo for this dreary rainy day so here is an old photo of a dirty digger digging the dirt.
Admin2 is reading Mr Wilder and Me by Jonathan Coe.
Covered Up
Seasonal rubbish.
Admin1 is reading Closed for Winter (bit like us really) by Jorn Lier Horst. Admin2 is reading A Touch of Love (also like us) by Jonathan Coe.
Wake Up Sheeple
This sticker probably said WAKE UP PEOPLE > YOU’VE BEEN CONNED > IT’S A HOAX (yeah right) but somebody sensible has a stab at scratching it off.
Happy birthdays Barry and Alex.
Admin1 is rereading Where the Bodies Are Buried by Christopher Brookmyre and Admin2 is reading Whoops! by John Lanchester.
Hold Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand
Another wet day. We have had more rain in three days than in the whole of September and so did the whole country.
Admin1 is rereading Be My Enemy by Christopher Brookmyre. Admin2 is reading Piranesi by Susanna Clarke; a memorable book set in a convoluted maze of giant rooms with raging seas in the cellars, clouds in the attics and classical statues everywhere.
We scored 11 on the GWQ.
Cats’ Cradle
Say fleas!
Admin1 is reading Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell.
And we scored FOURTEEN AGAIN on the GWQ!
Fighting COVID-19
We have various computers working on distributed computing projects — the graphic above shows our progress. Rosetta and WCG (World Community Grid) do research into COVID-19, Cancer Markers, African Rainfall and various other fields. The Asteroids one attempts to derive orbital and rotation elements. Follow the links to join in!
Happy Birthday NHS
A day of rain and sun and raging gales when we nevertheless managed to accrue 12kWh.
Admin1 is reading The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths.
We scored 9 on the GWQ.
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You
Gratitude is everywhere.
Admin1 is reading Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds and Admin2 is reading The System of the World by Neal Stephenson, a long-haul flight of fantasy.
We scored 11.5 on the GWQ.