Vermilion Sands
An occasional journal
Pussy Willow
Feb 28th 2019
The weather is back to normal for the time of year: 12.3 °C as opposed to 21.3 °C yesterday. February has been our hottest ever, with four 20°+ days in the past week, but the solar panels have only produced average kWh, probably because they work better with scattered clouds when the sun is low.
Admin2 is reading Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino; prostitution, crime, squalor and sleaze among former high-flyers at a posh school.
Froggy Froggy Duo
Feb 26th 2019
Today was extra super warm for the time of year: 21.7 °C, a record in the country and in our garden which is filled with birdsong, the scent of flowers and the croaks of amorous amphibians (oh and a hell of a lot of banging and drilling from the renderers working next door).
Today is also booktally day. In the last 6 years we have read 1536 books between us, 256 since last year, which by a strange coincidence is also our exact average number.
It Might as Well Be Spring
Feb 25th 2019
Today was the hottest ever February day in this country, but not here where the temperature topped at 16.3 °C after a morning of dense fog that left everything sparkling and our little plum tree suddenly covered with trembling dewy blossoms.
Pudding of the Day: Rhubarb tart
Feb 24th 2019
This pie was enjoyed by us, Gez, Dave, Audrey, Bob and Lena.
Admin1 is reading Broken Ground and Admin2 is reading Insidious Intent (a book with a stupid ending and a postcript not to spoiler it by revealing the stupid ending), both by Val McDermid. We scored 11 on the GWQ.
Sunny Afternoon
Feb 22nd 2019
Yesterday was our warmest February day of all time: 20.5 °C. If not for yesterday today would have been an equally record-breaking 20.0 °C. Admin1 is reading The House at Sea’s End by Elly Griffiths. Admin2 is reading After Dark by Haruki Murakami, a night in the life of a bunch of insomniacs while another character sleeps for weeks on end.
Sight of the Night: Sikh Temple
Feb 19th 2019
When Admin2 crossed the road for a better look all the lights went out.
Admin2 is reading Washington Black by Esi Edugyan; OK it is probably not PC to be nasty about maltreated slaves, however fictional, but this imaginary brutalised illiterate child fieldworker somehow achieves top skills in art, engineering and marine biology while still in his teens. We don’t need no education. But we do need thought control because back in the 1830s some well-meaning people had old-fashioned attitudes and our slave boy rightly calls them out. Oh and it just grinds to a halt without a conclusion or even a cliffhanger. And it was a Booker nominee. I blame the literary establishment.
Happy Birthday Bob
Feb 17th 2019
A cake with traffic on top and stripes inside.
Admin1 is reading The Drowning Man by Michael Robotham. Admin2 is reading Broken Ground by Val McDermid. We scored 11.5 on the GWQ.
Nuts
Feb 16th 2019
Our hazel tree is covered with blossoms, shown in the close-up. The long dangly ones are male and the small tufty ones are female. Sadly it seems that the brothers cannot pollinate the sisters so we just have to hope there is another blooming tree somewhere or we will have no nuts.
Admin2 is reading Box of Bones by Peter Moorfoot.
Look East
Feb 15th 2019
View from the drone. Somewhere on the horizon is the Hook Moor Wind Farm. Today was the warmest February day we have ever recorded: 19.5°C.
Admin1 is reading The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths and playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Admin2 is reading The Book of Hidden Things by Francesco Dimitri: a reunion of rural Italians with their friend who is either mental, magical or a minion of the mafia.
Up the Pole
Feb 12th 2019
High up in the communications industry.
Admin1 is rereading The Blinded Man by Arne Dahl.
Coffee of the day: Costa Rica Don Alfonso Aquires Estate
Critter of the day: Blackbird
Feb 10th 2019
Admin1 is reading Well of the Winds by Denzil Meyrick. Admin2 is reading Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson: a quatum telephone salesman, a pregnant Chinese princessling and a feng shui expert become entangled on the Moon; a terrific book but it ends on a cliffhanger.
We scored 8 on the GWQ.
Halo
Feb 8th 2019
Today was the hottest day so far this year: 14.5 °C.
Admin1 is reading Evil Things by Katya Ivar. Admin2 is reading The Black Prince by Adam Roberts (thx Admin1); a fun fragmentary newsreely novel based on a sketch of a script by Anthony Burgess and revelling in the bloodthirstiness of medieval armies.
Rainbow
Feb 7th 2019
Also spotted on our weathercam:
Admin1 is reading Dark Water by Robert Bryndza — competent, but nothing special. Admin2 is reading Fatal Music by Peter Morfoot
Coffee of the day: Brazil Passeio Icatu: rich and scented with citrus blossom.
Critter of the Day: Tit
Feb 4th 2019
Looking a bit blue.
Admin1 is reading A Secret Worth Killing For by Simon Berthon; a book not worth wasting time on. Admin2 is reading Shattered Minds by Laura Lam but abandoned it halfway through because it was boring.
新年快樂
Feb 3rd 2019
Celebrating Chinese New Year a few days early. We had fried rice, jiaozi, sweet and sour pork, rainbow chicken, red cooked belly pork and red blue eggs but most of it had been eaten by the time the photo was taken.
Admin2 is reading Blue Lightning by Anne Cleeves and we are watching Killing Eve.
We scored 12 on the GWQ!
Pink Sky at Night
Feb 1st 2019
Admin1 is reading Journey under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino.
Coffee of the day: Rwanda Nyungwe Supreme; a bit cardboardy.
Weather of the Day: Fog and frost
Jan 31st 2019
Today was the coldest day since our records began: a maximum of -1.4°C. Spiders make lace doilys.
Admin2 is reading The Overstory by Richard Powers; an overlong over-repetitive story about the over-exploitation of forests and a waste of a wonderful tree.
Sunshine
Jan 28th 2019
No clouds today.
Admin1 is reading The Girl in the Ice by Lotte and Soren Hammer. Admin2 is reading Impure Blood by Peter Morfoot.
Aerial View
Jan 27th 2019
High-growing plant.
Admin1 is reading Box of Bones by Peter Morfoot, last of a set of three crime novels with a nicely interacting team of detectives and nice complicated plots; all very nicely written and all set in … Nice.
We scored 11 on the GWQ.