An occasional journal
Posts tagged admin1 reading
Clouds of the Afternoon: Iridescence
Oct 26th 2015
Admin1 is reading The Preacher by Sander Jakobsen (about as “electrifying” as a static-charged balloon. Overlong, increasingly implausible and full of character inconsistencies). Admin2 is reading The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. We watched Rebus and saw an Iridium flare.
Cloud of the Rings
Oct 25th 2015
Admin1 is reading Fear Nothing by Lisa Gardner (a nasty book, which enjoyed its nastiness far too much). Admin2 is reading Woman with a Birthmark by Håkan Nesser.
Top Dog
Oct 24th 2015
Looks like a sundog but it’s another upper tangent arc.
Admin1 is reading Sun and Shadow by Ake Edwardson. We watched An American Werewolf in London and scored 9.5 on the Guardian Weekend quiz.
Berry Nice
Oct 22nd 2015
More autumn colours.
Admin1 is reading Woman with a Birthmark by Håkan Nesser, and watched the Hollywood remake of State of Play (not wholly bad, but suffers grievously from comparison with the superb original BBC series). Admin2 is reading Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds.
A Grey Day
Oct 18th 2015
Drizzle.
Admin1 is re-reading Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds (an old favourite which all gets a bit rushed towards the end, but is saved by the moral shocker on the last page). Admin2 is reading Sun and Shadow by Ake Edwardson, which also ended in a rush.
Fungus
Oct 17th 2015
A whole row of these huge mushrooms sprang up on the dewy grass between putting the washing out and bringing it in. Admin1 is reading The Preacher by Camilla Lackberg (which needs a diagram to unravel the family tree). We scored 9 on the Guardian Weekend quiz.
The Secret Garden
Oct 14th 2015
A bit of demolition on the ramshackle house up the road reveals a rather charming mural.
Admin1 is reading Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux. Admin2 is reading The Pleasures of Men by Kate Williams which did not give Admin2 any pleasures.
111111
Oct 11th 2015
Admin1 is reading Rough Country by John Sandford. Admin2 is reading The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne. We scored 9 on the Guardian Weekend quiz, and are witnessing Witnesses, a creepy French crime serial.
Leaf Pattern
Oct 9th 2015
Admin1 is reading Buried Prey by John Sandford. Admin2 is reading Bad Things by Michael Marshall.
Vila i frid Keith
Waiting for Lightning
Oct 6th 2015
Thunderstorm tonight. Admin2 tried taking pot shots at the night sky and missed every flash, but the street light on the raindrops produced a magnifient display of orbs. Who knew our traffic island was haunted by a multitude of ghosts?
Admin1 is reading Dark of the Moon by John Sandford.
Moonrise
Sep 30th 2015
After Bloody Monday, Orange Wednesday. We had our best September ever, solar panels wise.
Admin1 is reading Crashing Heaven by Al Robertson (well-written and impressively imaginative; an auspicious debut). Admin2 is reading The Martian by Andy Weir which had a predictable plot but a good pace and pleasant voice.
Halo Heaven
Sep 28th 2015
Two dogs chasing the sun
A colourful parhelion
A tiny bit of halo touching an upper tangent arc to make a pair of kissy lips in the sky.
There was also a massive (but too faint to photograph) circumzenithal arc smiling down all afternoon.
Admin1 is watching Person of Interest series 3 and reading Gone to Ground by John Harvey.
Balls
Sep 25th 2015
Clouds at lunchtime on an otherwise sunny day, when the solar panels passed the earnings in 2014, previously our best year.
Admin2 is now reading The Last Breath by Denise Mina and Admin1 is reading Firstborn by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter.
Admin1 watched the first couple of episodes of Orphan Black, series 3, and got somewhat lost; a re-watch of the first two series is probably needed to catch up with the convoluted plot.
Ledgers
Sep 24th 2015
Scaffolding planks. They are called ledgers and side-on they look a lot like books.
Admin1 is reading The Last Breath by Denise Mina (well-written and involving, but it would have helped to have read previous books in the series). Admin2 is reading Talking It Over by Julian Barnes. Yakity yak don’t get your lover back.
Half Moon
Sep 21st 2015
Admin1 is reading Oblivion by Arnaldur Indriðason. Admin2 is reading Birthdays for the Dead by Stuart MacBride. Eurgh.
Critter of the Day: Vanessa atalanta
Sep 20th 2015
This Red Admiral has clearly been in the wars.
Admin1 is reading Mixing with Murder by Ann Granger (another silly book, with idiots and ludicrous coincidences). Admin2 is reading It’s a Battlefield by Graham Greene. We scored 9 on the Guardian Weekend quiz.
Weather of the Day: Autumnal
Sep 17th 2015
Admin1 is reading The Day Is Dark by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (a daft book, a prime example of both an idiot plot and its subsidiary, the second-order idiot plot, in which not only are the protagonists all idiots, so is the rest of society). Admin2 is reading Oblivion by Arnaldur Indriðason
The Kremlin
Sep 12th 2015
Quarry Hill was once earmarked as Hitler’s northern headquarters; now it’s the HQ of the SS.
Admin2 watched The Glass Menagerie which featured real rain on stage.
Admin1 is reading Nexus by Ramez Naam (memo to editor: cut 200 pages, mostly the implausible and tediously extended fight scenes, and we might have a pretty good book).
JEZ WE DID!!!
Buddleia, Butterfly, Bee
Sep 10th 2015
A lovely sunny day brings the insects out.
Kaffi dagsins: Ethiopian Kochere Yirgacheffe; woody with a fruity aftertaste and yummy.
Admin1 is reading Midnight Fugue by Reginald Hill (frivolous and uninvolving, with irritating neologisms; Hill isn’t as funny as he thinks he is). Admin2 is reading The Day Is Dark by Yrsa Sigurdardottir.
Welcome to the Brudenell
Sep 6th 2015
Admin2′s birthday outing to New Woman, Bilgepump and Cuz. And our best September sunshine day ever: 8.38kWh.
Admin1 is reading The Crow Trap by Anne Cleeves (elaborate and ambitiously constructed, but overlong and a bit confusing). Admin2 is reading The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton. We scored five on the Guardian Weekend quiz. Oh dear.
Admin1 stayed at home and watched Dark City, and was interested to find that his original opinion (in Matrix 132, Jul/Aug 1998) was if anything intensified, despite the good reputation the film now has:
I was telling a friend about Dark City. “Think forties films,” I said, “dark mean streets, homburgs, crisp and witty dialogue, femmes fatales, plots to die for. Dark City has none of them. Well, apart from the homburgs. And the rain.” All style and no substance, the film reminded me of nothing so much as a routine Dr Who story, with its daft aliens, dull dialogue, plot holes you could drive the Nostromo through, and absolute refusal to follow up on the existential terror of its premise of reality-altering technology (see Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven or any number of Dick books for infinitely better treatments). It was just an excuse for second-rate special FX.