Vermilion Sands
An occasional journal
Critter of the Day: Bullfinch
Feb 22nd 2018
Admin2 is reading A Long Way from Home by Peter Carey; three peculiar people go rally driving in Australia and have their lives changed in many ways.
Cloud of the Day: Iridescence
Feb 19th 2018
Actually this cloud was spotted in Manchester last week on a rare occasion when it wasn’t raining.
Admin2 is reading The Child by Sebastian Fitzek; a terminally ill boy believes he is the reincarnation of a serial killer.
Pancake Day
Feb 13th 2018
Yums!
Admin2 is reading Trophy by Steffan Jacobsen: a hardboiled mercenary and infuriated cop on the trail of ruthless human-hunters.
Critter of the Day: The Other Tit
Feb 11th 2018
Admin2 is reading A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths, fourth volume in a series about archaeology and criminology in Norfolk. Corpses and curses.
We scored 10 on the GWQ.
Critter of the Day: Tit
Feb 9th 2018
Admin2 is reading Fire Down Below by William Golding, the last volume of a thumping good trilogy about the physics and sociology of life aboard a clapped-out sailing ship during the Napoleonic wars.
Weather of the Day: light snow
Feb 6th 2018
A few snowflakes in some thin film iridescence.
Admin1 is reading Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Admin2 is reading Close Quarters by William Golding.
We scored 9 on the GWQ.
Lichens
Feb 3rd 2018
Admin2 is reading Rites of Passage by William Golding. We watched The Limehouse Golem and Admin1 watched Alias.
Orange…
Feb 1st 2018
…Marmalade
Storms on Jupiter.
January’s weather was averagely cloudy, cold, wet and windy.
Admin2 is reading Exit West by Moshin Hamid; a fable/allegory/romance about teleporting refugees which makes no sense at all.
Super Blue (Blood) Moon
Jan 31st 2018
The second full moon this month, 10% bigger and 15% brighter, and eclipsed, though sadly not here.
Admin1 is watching series 4 of Peaky Blinders, which was terrific, with the usual amazing soundtrack including this version of A Hard Rains a-Gonna Fall by Laura Marling:
Admin2 is reading A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel, an enormous boring blockbuster about the French Revolution.
Gold and Bull
Jan 29th 2018
Finches in the branches.
Admin1 is reading Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds.
Burning Sky
Jan 28th 2018
Sunset on the warmest night this year.
Admin2 is reading Winter by Ali Smith, an engaging story of the friendship between a young woman and a 101-year-old man, and their mutual interest in the life and works of Pauline Boty. We are watching Witnesses saison 2 (which started off well but got a bit loopy and implausible) and scored 9.5 on the GWQ.
Cloud of the Day: Crepuscular Rays
Jan 26th 2018
The left-hand one appears to be levitating some crazy clown riding a banana.
Admin2 is reading H(A)PPY by Nicola Barker; a story about a creative person who cannot settle down in a utopia, with lots of coloured words, a bit like The Gu(a)rdi(a)n in its current incarnation.
We watched The Tunnel series 3 which was somewhat preposterous.
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.