Vermilion Sands
An occasional journal
Halo
Oct 16th 2019
Admin1 is reading A Spy’s Life by Henry Porter.
Admin2 is reading, on Audrey’s recommendation, The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge; a sugary sweet confection drenched in lashings of description in which a moon princess accompainied by friendly lion, pony, hare and unicorn triumphs over the man from the forest with his huge black cock.
Straight-edger
Oct 13th 2019
Half cloud, half clear sky.
Admin1 is reading Remembrance Day by Henry Porter — a competent but unremarkable spy thriller, notable for the oddly nostalgic 1999-era tech: Zip drives, clunky mobiles, TSR files (these misidentified as “terminator stay resident” rather than “terminate and stay resident”).
Admin2 is reading The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman; a gripping story that ends with a ‘to be contiued’…
We scored 7 on the GWQ
Light Night
Oct 10th 2019
Here’s our best picture of Light Night: the street lamps from the bus stop, taken with a wobbly camera.
Admin1 is reading Naked Prey by John Sandford. Admin2 is reading The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell; a family saga encompassing everything that ever happened in Zambia (except the eclipse), starting with mosi oa tunya and ending in the future with internalised tech, drones and an implausible flood.
Home and Dry (Not)
Oct 6th 2019
Waiting for a taxi in the pouring rain.
Other things we saw:
1) donkeys
2) surging seas
3) iridescent clouds
Up in the Air
Oct 5th 2019
Flying the drone over the cliffs we came upon a star map with a sandy milky way.
Admin1 is reading The Institute by Stephen King. Admin2 is reading The Dying Light by Henry Porter (a slightly futuristic spy story in which the government goes full-on surveillance state). (we went a bit mad and bought 6 books in case we ran out of reading matter, though we could have bought them in Leeds and had lighter luggage).
We scored 7.5 on the GWQ. Thank you Gez.
Beside the Seaside
Oct 4th 2019
Morning in Scarborough. We were staying in an enormous flat in the Green Gables Hotel which was huge, gothic, understaffed and virtually empty and had a beautiful cat and a dark park next door where admins 1 and 2 saw the bright stars and listened to the loud owls. Admin 1 has been rereading The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo. Admin2 has been reading Thin Air by Ann Cleeves.
Cloud Chasing
Sep 30th 2019
This is not a bonfire; it’s a show-off vaping behind a wall.
After our sunniest August, September has been our sunniest ever recorded: 139.835kWh.
Admin1 is reading Giotto’s Hand by Iain Pears.
Weather of the Day: Rain
Sep 29th 2019
Admin1 is reading Clearing the Dark by Hania Allen; readable, but very predictable and more plot holes than a seed bed.
We scored 9.5 on the GWQ.
Belling the Cat
Sep 27th 2019
This random neighbourhood cat has more bells than you can shake a stick at.
Admin2 has been reading How to Be Both by Ali Smith.
Hiding in the Wood
Sep 26th 2019
The grinning idiot on the right should watch out for those sinister characters on the left.
Admin1 is reading Rune and Admin2 has been reading Bryant & May: London’s Glory, both by Christopher Fowler.
Shadows and Light
Sep 21st 2019
We noticed that the output of our solar panels had suddenly dropped over the last couple of very sunny days, from a maximum of about 1.3kW to a maximum of 900 watts. We sent the drone up for a look and saw this at around midday: the outlined area is now in shadow as the sun gets lower, and just that tiny amount of shading cuts nearly half a kilowatt from the output.
Admin1 is reading A Shot in the Dark by Lynne Truss (daft, and not as amusing as it thinks it is). Admin2 is reading The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup. We scored 9.5 on the GWQ.
Suns in a Run
Sep 19th 2019
And it is as sunny as they said! And the warmest day this month at 28.5 °C.
Admin1 is reading Bryant and May: London’s Glory by Christopher Fowler. Admin2 is reading The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas, a curious book about female chrononauts.
Elusive Butterfly (not)
Sep 17th 2019
Red admirals are everywhere.
Admin2 is reading Confessions by Kanae Minato, more repercussions of a murder, this time commited by schoolchildren.
Coffee of the day: Burundi Sangira: super fruity, yumms!
Red Sky at Night
Sep 14th 2019
A fiery sky after a sunny day.
Admin1 is reading The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup. One imagines him sitting down with a list of Scandi Noir tropes and ticking them off one by one … but it’s sort of forgiveable given that, as the writer of Forbrydelsen (The Killing), he invented a lot of them.
Admin2 is reading The Third Person by Steve Mosby; a thoroughly disturbing story about the power of writing.
We scored 10 on the GWQ.
Robin
Sep 13th 2019
Admin1 is reading The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man by Dave Hutchinson and Admin2 is reading Reconstruction by Mick Herron (thx Admin1).
The Wind from Nowhere
Sep 10th 2019
A glitch in our weatherstation produces evidence of an unexpected hurricane.
Raindrops
Sep 9th 2019
The drops that seem to be hanging in space are actually caught up in cobwebs.
Admin1 is reading Reconstruction by Mick Herron (excellent, and nail-bitingly tense). Admin2 is reading The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man by Dave Hutchinson (thx Admin1), which was whizz! bang! pop! AMAZING!
Cake
Sep 7th 2019
More birthday fun with a slap-up Chinese banquet, followed by a visit to Terror from the Skies
Admin2 is reading The Second Sleep by Robert Harris (thx Admin1), an engaging book set in a post-apocalyptic medieval theocracy where archaelology is anathema (he could have callled it A Canticle for Morgenstern).
We scored, um, 8 on the GWQ.
Happy Birthday Lee
Sep 6th 2019
Drinks all round and the world turned upside down.
Admin2 is reading Penance by Kanae Minato; the knock-on effects of a murder withnessed by schoolchildren.