Vermilion Sands
An occasional journal
Corona
Apr 3rd 2018
Sun behind clouds reflected in puddle. It rained today, but not like yesterday.
Admin2 is reading Holy Ceremony by Harri Nykanen; another story of long-delayed school revenge killings and very interesting until it was hastily wrapped up at the end.
April Showers
Apr 2nd 2018
Non-stop sleet and rain. Over 21mm (which is nearly twice what we got in the whole of April 2017) and a top temp of 6.0 °C (which is less than half our lowest daytime temp in April 2017, and indeed our lowest ever recorded April temp). Roll on summer.
Admin1 is reading The Night Ferry by Lotte and Soren Hammer.
Happy Birthday Gez
Mar 31st 2018
Happy birthday, Easter and Passover to the best woman in the world.
Admin2 is reading The Ninth Grave by Stefan Ahnhem: a tricky problem for the maritally challenged father of a rebellious teenager Fabian Risk: three serial killers in two countries with the Israelis pulling some strings (careful now).
We scored an appalling 6 on the GWQ.
Rainbow
Mar 29th 2018
First rainbow this year (that we’ve noticed). There has been plenty of rain but not enough sun.
Admin1 is reading I Am Missing by Tim Weaver.
Sundew in the Sun
Mar 28th 2018
The garden is full of rubbish and the sky is full of altostratus so here’s our resurgent flesh-eater getting ready to catch flies.
Admin2 is reading Nod by Adrian Barnes; an insomniac apocalypse with a heartbreaking epigraph which should probably be read first to add resonance to the narrative.
A Grand Sunset
Mar 27th 2018
A pretty sunset from Grand Theft Auto 5. Admin1 is at 99.29% completion — just need to attain par at golf and do a couple of shooting range challenges now…
Admin2 is quietly reading Silence by Jan Costin Wagner.
Crowd of the Day: Bollocks to Brexit
Mar 24th 2018
Admin1 is reading Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths. Admin2 is reading Victim without a Face by Stefan Ahnhem, an unlikely but suspenseful story of a long-delayed and slow-motion school killing.
We scored, um, 5.75 on the GWQ.
Sad Onion
Mar 21st 2018
And so would you be, if you had been cut into slices.
Admin1 is reading The Owl Always Hunts at Night by Samuel Bjork.
We are watching Jordskott II.
Flower of the Day: Camellia
Mar 20th 2018
A sign of spring for the equinox.
Admin1 is reading Silence by Jan Costin Wagner. Admin2 is reading Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths.
Oh No! More Snow
Mar 18th 2018
Admin2 is reading Stockholm Delete by Jens Lapidus which is rubbish; too many gangstas.
We scored 7.5 on the GWQ after a late goal from Dave.
Weather of the Day: Rain
Mar 15th 2018
What a miserable year it has been so far.
Admin1 is reading The Mechanical Devil by Kate Ellis.
π Day
Mar 14th 2018
A pastafarian pi day pie made from repurposed leftover spag bol.
Admin1 is reading Eighteen Below by Stefan Ahnhem. Admin2 is reading The Lake by Lotte and Soren Hammer; a horrible story about human traffickers.
Critter of the Day: Female Blackbird
Mar 11th 2018
So not black.
Admin2 is reading The Happy Isles of Oceania by Paul Theroux.
We scored 10 on the GWQ.
Snowman’s Land
Mar 8th 2018
After the Beast from the East comes the Pest from the West. This is what we woke up to this morning:
By the afternoon it was all gone, apart from the melting snowpeople. Admin2 is reading Eighteen Below by Stefan Ahnhem (a somewhat preposterous but pacy story) on a day when it eventually reached 10.5 above.
Coffee of the day: Red Roast Blend: mellow.
A Charm of Goldfinches
Mar 4th 2018
Admin1 is reading The Lake by Lotte and Soren Hammer.
We scored 8.5 on the GWQ.
Black and White
Mar 3rd 2018
Blackbird and starling sheltering from the snow.
One snowy day in March, Admin2 is reading The Familiar 1: One Rainy Day in May by Mark Z Danielewski (hard to categorise, but a labour of love with masses of magical illustrations, typographical tricks and interleaved narratives, each in a different font, and an enormous number of volumes to follow).
An Ice Day
Feb 28th 2018
Last night was the coldest night since 2010: -5.3 °C and the coldest day since 2013: -0.1 °C. As for the solar panels: not a watt.
Admin1 is reading Trophy by Steffan Jacobsen. Admin2 is reading Graft by Matt Hill; a cyborg from another dimension meets some prize specimens of Manchester low life.
Twilight
Feb 26th 2018
Snow is coming, flake by flake.
Admin2 is reading Harvest by Jim Crace; all hell breaks loose in a preindustrial village when strangers and the threat of sheep arrive.
We scored 12 on the GWQ.
It’s booktally day. We have now read 1280 books between us in 5 years, 272 since last year.
Good Morning
Feb 24th 2018
Here comes the sun.
Admin1 is reading A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths. Admin2 is reading Things Can Only Get Worse? by John O’Farrell; a Labour Party activist gets it wrong every time.