Vermilion Sands
An occasional journal
Cloud of the Day: Triangular contrail
Jan 24th 2018
This very neat straight-edge trail appeared in the sky this morning.
Admin1 is reading Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds.
Cloud of the Day: Altostratus
Jan 23rd 2018
Admin2 is reading The Twelfth Department by William Ryan.
Cloud of the Day: Curly contrail
Jan 22nd 2018
Today the solar panels amassed 1kWh on the earliest day of the year (by one day) to date.
Admin1 is reading House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds.
We scored 7 on the GWQ
Cloud of the Day: Pink Incus
Jan 19th 2018
This cloud passed over us earlier and turned a sunny day into a rainy night.
Admin1 is reading The Prefect by Alistair Reynolds. Admin2 is reading The Crow Girl by Eric Axl Sund.
RIP Phobos 2009-2018
Jan 18th 2018
Phobos was a big healthy lively and friendly cat until yesterday morning when his back legs suddenly stopped working. Today we took him for a lethal injection. No choice. Saddle thrombus is the worst; neither instantly struck down nor with a lingering illness that we could come to terms with, but his old self from the waist up and dead from the waist down and in agonising pain (until the vet gave him some excellent drugs). We will miss him so much.
Weather of the Day: Graupel
Jan 16th 2018
Tiny snowballs falling from the sky.
Admin1 is reading The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. Admin2 is reading Be Awesome by Hadley Freeman; tips for girls who want to shine.
Trifling with the Cake
Jan 14th 2018
So tasty it was eaten before it could be photographed.
Admin2 is reading History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund; an isolated backwoods teenager, as in Elmet, becomes entwined with posh incomers of the Christian Science persuasion.
We scored 11 in the GWQ.
Not a Good Advertisement
Jan 13th 2018
To be fair, I remember this car looking good in the olden days.
Admin1 is reading Touch by Claire North.
Kaffee des Tages: Lidl Deluxe Uganda Erussi which is OK.
Happy Birthday Audrey
Jan 11th 2018
A rainbow unicorn cake for the star of the week.
Admin1 is rereading The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. Admin2 is reading Elmet by Fiona Mozley: a primal story of brutality and solidarity in the remote backwoods of modern West Yorkshire.
Spring in the Air
Jan 9th 2018
New blossoms outside old church. Today was so dull and cloudy the solar panels recorded no watts whatsoever.
Admin1 is reading Road Closed by Leigh Russell. Admin2 is reading Black Day at the Bosphorus Cafe by MH Baylis
Gulls Just Want to Have Fun
Jan 8th 2018
Admin1 is reading Cut Short by Leigh Russell, which was readable but had a worryingly negative attitude towards anyone who wasn’t middle class. And her detective is rather emotionally erratic … still, first novel so room for improvement.
Admin1 has been playing Grand Theft Auto 5 (thanks Gez & Dave!) on his new XBox (thanks Admin2!).
Weather of the Day: Frost
Jan 7th 2018
Admin1 is reading The Vinyl Detective: The Run-out Groove by Andrew Cartmel, a jolly jape with added cats. Admin2 is reading The Tottenham Outrage by MH Baylis.
Critter of the Day: House Sparrow (?)
Jan 6th 2018
Admin1 is reading Black Day at the Bosphorus Cafe by MH Baylis, this one centred on the Kurdish, Greek and Turkish communities in Tottenham. Baylis’ three Tottenham-set detective novels were a great find, and really summoned up the area well … in particular the smells! Very big on odours, is Mr Baylis.
Admin2 is reading Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, a haunting ghost story voiced by ghosts.
We scored 10.5 on the GWQ.
Weather of the Day: Rain
Jan 3rd 2018
Storm Eleanor blowing by. Nothing dramatic in these parts.
Admin1 is reading The Tottenham Outrage by MH Baylis, an intriguing contemporary mystery centred on (and sympathetic to) the Hasidic community of north-east London, coupled with a fictionalised account of the real Tottenham Outrage of 1909 — an event of which we had never heard, despite both living in the area for some years.
Admin2 is reading The Vinyl Detective: The Run-out Groove by Andrew Cartmel, a lively adventure which crackled along at either 45 or 78 rpm according to the cover quotes.
Coffee of the day: Percol Black & Beyond.
Critter of the Day: Squirrel
Jan 1st 2018
Stealing nuts!
2017 had average weather and average sunshine.
Admin1 is reading A Death at the Palace by MH Baylis — a well-written crime story evocatively set in Tottenham (the palace of the title is Alexandra), with an incongruously jolly cover. Admin2 is reading The Power by Naomi Alderman, which was electrifying.
Don’t Swallow Litres, and Watch the Parkin Eaters
Dec 31st 2017
Storm Dylan failed to bring blowing winds, hard rain etc so here’s our New Year pudding. We scored 7 on the GWQ, bringing our yearly average to 8.92 which is an increment on last year.
Snow Is Falling All the Time
Dec 29th 2017
Actually it has all melted now, but not before the solar panels had recorded our first 0kWh day of the year.
Admin2 is reading A Death at the Palace by MH Baylis (thx Admin1); a young woman goes missing… We are watching Sé quién eres (aka I Know Who You Are); another young woman goes missing…
Coffee of the day: Ethiopian Espresso: sweet and fruity (thx Fiona)
The Moon by the Silvery Light
Dec 28th 2017
We watched Disparue (a young woman goes missing) and scored 7 on the Guardian festive quiz.
The House of the Rising Sun
Dec 26th 2017
Admin1 is reading The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund (3 books by 2 people) — compelling, but horrific and disturbing. Admin2 is reading You Should Come with Me Now by M John Harrison (thx again Admin1); fragments washed up on the coast of an imaginary country where “Patrick Hamilton (master of shabbiness) glares balefully at JG Ballard (master of beaches)”.