Vermilion Sands
An occasional journal
Grey Skies
Jul 7th 2017
Dark and turbulent clouds.
Admin1 is reading Country of the Blind by Christopher Brookmyre.
Quite Pretty One Evening
Jul 6th 2017
Handsome cumulus clouds that never developed into the storm we were anticipating on this sultry 30.6°C day. And earlier, some pileus cloud forming over cumulus:
Admin1 is reading Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre.
Feeding Time
Jul 3rd 2017
A red admiral butterfly and a hoverfly feasting on privet flowers. Admin1 is reading Boiling a Frog by Christopher Brookmyre. Admin2 is reading Dictator by Robert Harris: Ancient Roman politics, not unlike modern politics but with more bloodshed.
Noctilucent Clouds
Jul 2nd 2017
Our first noctilucent clouds of the year, photographed at 2am this morning.
We scored 9 on the Guardian Weekend quiz.
Sweet Honey Bee
Jul 1st 2017
A sunny(ish) day at last. June’s solar panels just managed to top last June’s by a few hundred watts.
Admin2 is reading The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson, which is summed up by the title and reasonably entertaining.
Rain, Rain, Rain
Jun 28th 2017
24 hours of continuous rain.
Admin1 is reading The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross, in which Charlie takes inordinate pleasure in attacking and destroying bits of Leeds — including the Arndale centre (sorry, center) in Headingley — with an army of psychopathic alien elves from another dimension. The hideous Quarry House also plays a central part, as does Potternewton Park, Harehills, the Leeds inner ring road, the nuclear bunker at Lawnswood Cemetery, Malham Cove and Otley. Not a brilliant book, but made readable and entertaining by its local interest. But why does Charlie insist on American spelling? Very irritating. He also seems to think it rains all the time in Leeds 
Damn Fine Coffee
Jun 26th 2017
Admin1′s fancy coffee machine and fancy coffee in a fancy cup. Delicious. Thanks, Admin2!
Admin1 is reading The Night Crew by John Sandford (readable as always, with some good jokes. Q: What’s the difference between a rooster and a lawyer? A: A rooster clucks defiance. [Think about it...]).
Admin2 is reading The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland, which was probably more fun to write than it was to read. Or edit.
We scored 9 on the Guardian Weekend quiz.
Happy Birthday Chris
Jun 24th 2017
A coffee cake for a top-class human bean.
Admin2 is reading The Intrusions by Stav Sherez which was readable but somewhat implausible and formulaic.
Happy Birthdays Twins
Jun 22nd 2017
Clouds of the day: A flying saucer releases a colourful ray.
And a herd of animals gallops towards a magical tree.
Admin2 is reading 1977 Red Riding by David Peace but is not enjoying the racism, sexism, gbh and constant fucking swearing.
Hottest Day Ever
Jun 19th 2017
Well, hottest day ever recorded in this location in the 7-year lifetime of our equipment: 35.0°C. Marked with a circumzenithal arc.
Crowd of the Day: Street Party
Jun 18th 2017
Manufactured event to meet the neighbours. It was a great day for it: 33.3°C and 12.47 kWh of sunshine. Admin2 sulked. Admin1 went along and won a prize.
Admin1 is reading The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland (entertaining froth, but overlong; Adam Roberts’ Guardian review got it right, in that it’s written like a comedy without actually being very funny). Admin2 is reading Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner. And we scored 8.5, thanks to generous marking, on the Guardian Weekend Quiz.
Cloud of the Day: Map of Africa
Jun 13th 2017
Admin1 is reading Stone Coffin by Kjell Eriksson; a thoroughly gloomy book, in an irritating American translation full of typos and copy-editing errors.
Flower of the Day: Peony
Jun 11th 2017
Admin1 is reading Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner, which was excellent: well written, nicely characterised, amusing and rather touching, which all rendered the slightly rabbits-out-of-hat plotting less of a problem. Admin2 is rereading The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq: about a cloned comedian living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland a couple of millennia in the future. Not science fiction though; too pretentious. We scored 10 on the Guardian Weekend quiz.
A New Dawn
Jun 9th 2017
Here comes the sun after a sleepless night enjoying the results of an election that nobody won.
Halo
Jun 7th 2017
A sign of rain to come, and sure enough it arrived a few hours later, after a day of high winds and 12.74kWh of sunshine.
Admin2 is reading Stone Coffin by Kjell Eriksson which was ok but nothing special.
We Are Snailing
Jun 5th 2017
We had more rain today than in the whole of April, and it brought out all the molluscs, including this splendid red snail; another election portent.
Admin1 is reading I’m Travelling Alone by Samuel Bjork, which had a preposterous plot, a pointlessly suicidal detective and a hell of a lot of winking. Admin2 is reading Dragon’s Green by Scarlett Thomas, an enchanting book in a luminous jacket.
Critter of the Day: Red Admiral
Jun 4th 2017
Vanessa Atalanta, earlier in the year than we have spotted one previously, a change from the whites and speckled woods which are all we have seen earlier, and another red portent for the election.
We scored 7 on the Guardian Weekend quiz.
Pink Sky at Night
Jun 2nd 2017
…and pink rainbow bright.
Admin1 is reading A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away by Christopher Brookmyre.
Damn Fine Cherry Pie
Jun 2nd 2017
…and damn fine coffee: Mystery Coffee Mark 7.
Admin1 is rewatching Cracker.
Buzzfeed
May 31st 2017
A bee arriving on thyme.
Admin1 is reading Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks by Christopher Brookmyre. Admin2 is reading Memo Random by Anders de la Motte; a forgettable book with an amnesiac protagonist.