An occasional journal
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Water Colours
Jan 22nd 2016
Waterworks just up the road. We suspect a workman turned the wrong lever and cut our water off for a couple of hours yesterday.
Last of the Christmas Lights
Jan 5th 2016
Admin1 is reading From a Buick 8 by Stephen King. Admin2 is reading Painkillers by Simon Ings (an uncorrected proof, so maybe they fixed the eclipse of the horn of the crescent moon, but hey proofreaders, you know).
Happy New Year
Jan 1st 2016
December 2015 exceeded expectations in so many ways. It was our warmest, darkest and wettest December since our records began. Not just us either. Thx Desmond, Eva and Frank.
The solar panel summary for 2015 is available. TL;DR: Best year yet.
S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G
Dec 29th 2015
Sales frenzy.
Admin2 is reading The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett.
Christmas Lights
Dec 1st 2015
It was the grand switching-on day for the bloke round the corner’s ostentatious display. Half a dozen people gathered to witness the occasion.
November had the warmest November day and night on our records, but also the coldest night this year. It was the second rainiest month this year and the least sunny November we have recorded.
Admin1 is watching Doctor Who. Admin2 is reading Deep State by Walter Jon Williams, but abandoned it because Middle East shenanigans too disturbing to contemplate.
Smile Though Your Heart Is Breaking
Nov 21st 2015
It snowed in the night but had melted by morning.
Admin1 is reading He Who Fears the Wolf by Karin Fossum.
We scored 7 on the Guardian Weekend quiz.
Soap and Water
Oct 29th 2015
Another rainy day. The cafe up the road is full of TV cameras. The woman in front is trying to keep locals out of the film. I ask her what they are filming. She says Emmerdale. Which is French for covered in shit, approximately.
We watched Psychedelic Britannia which was mindblowing and Carrie which was er um. [Admin1: 70s films do date badly, with their awful hair and intrusive action-telegraphing music. I'd also forgotten the heavy Psycho references, both in the music and direction -- it was set in the Bates High School, of all places 
. But Sissy Spacek's performance was just as good as I remembered.]
Admin2 is reading Slade House by David Mitchell which is seasonal.
The Secret Garden
Oct 14th 2015
A bit of demolition on the ramshackle house up the road reveals a rather charming mural.
Admin1 is reading Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux. Admin2 is reading The Pleasures of Men by Kate Williams which did not give Admin2 any pleasures.
Ledgers
Sep 24th 2015
Scaffolding planks. They are called ledgers and side-on they look a lot like books.
Admin1 is reading The Last Breath by Denise Mina (well-written and involving, but it would have helped to have read previous books in the series). Admin2 is reading Talking It Over by Julian Barnes. Yakity yak don’t get your lover back.
The Kremlin
Sep 12th 2015
Quarry Hill was once earmarked as Hitler’s northern headquarters; now it’s the HQ of the SS.
Admin2 watched The Glass Menagerie which featured real rain on stage.
Admin1 is reading Nexus by Ramez Naam (memo to editor: cut 200 pages, mostly the implausible and tediously extended fight scenes, and we might have a pretty good book).
JEZ WE DID!!!
Welcome to the Brudenell
Sep 6th 2015
Admin2′s birthday outing to New Woman, Bilgepump and Cuz. And our best September sunshine day ever: 8.38kWh.
Admin1 is reading The Crow Trap by Anne Cleeves (elaborate and ambitiously constructed, but overlong and a bit confusing). Admin2 is reading The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton. We scored five on the Guardian Weekend quiz. Oh dear.
Admin1 stayed at home and watched Dark City, and was interested to find that his original opinion (in Matrix 132, Jul/Aug 1998) was if anything intensified, despite the good reputation the film now has:
I was telling a friend about Dark City. “Think forties films,” I said, “dark mean streets, homburgs, crisp and witty dialogue, femmes fatales, plots to die for. Dark City has none of them. Well, apart from the homburgs. And the rain.” All style and no substance, the film reminded me of nothing so much as a routine Dr Who story, with its daft aliens, dull dialogue, plot holes you could drive the Nostromo through, and absolute refusal to follow up on the existential terror of its premise of reality-altering technology (see Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven or any number of Dick books for infinitely better treatments). It was just an excuse for second-rate special FX.
Weather of the Day: Overcast
Aug 14th 2015
Our least sunny August day ever recorded, with constant heavy clouds, rain and drizzle. Sorry twins. But it was so calm, the canal was like a mirror.
We watched The Blinded Man again.
Corblimey
Jul 26th 2015
One of the sights at Unity Day was the Labour Party stall that invited passing punters to put balls in buckets to show support for the leadership candidates. Jeremy Corbyn’s got a lot more balls than any of the others. Admin2 was inspired to do this promotional poster with added amateurish scuzz.
Admin1 is reading Where Evil Lies by Jørgen Brekke, but gave it up after 100 pages — it would have been earlier, but the awfulness was oddly mesmerising. Admin2 is reading Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by David Shafer.
Cloud of the Day: Vapour
Jun 27th 2015
Admins1&2 celebrated 14 years of joint administration by going to a very poorly publicised and signposted ecig expo in Harrogate, involving an inordinately long walk from the nearest bus stop, but we did blag some pens, a box mod and a lift back to the main road.
Admin2 is reading The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst.
The Primrose Path
Mar 16th 2015
The xmas lights bloke celebrates spring.
Admin1 is reading Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett. Admin2 is reading Something Coming Through by Paul McAuley.
Christmas Is Coming
Dec 11th 2014
Admin1 is reading Monument to Murder by Mari Hanna (soapily histrionic and implausible) and The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber (luxuriantly written and highly readable). Admin2 has been reading Doctor Bloodmoney by Philip K Dick.
Cloud of the Day: Fumulus
Dec 6th 2014
Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station. And for power without smoke, a roadside wind farm
