I'm going to Rennes in less than 24 hours and I've already started feeling the dread and misery and loneliness of coming "home" again I like to plan ahead. I'm a firm believer in the military's famous 7 'P's: Proper Preparation and Planning Prevents Even the Most Fleeting Glimmer of Happiness

More strange architecture for me this week reading "The Boss In The Wall" by Avram Davidson & Grania Davis. It's described in some blurb/reviews as about a father's Quest To Save His Fambly from a supernatural threat called Paper Men that live in walls, but it's nowhere near that straightforward

Have sumn autumnn

Pic 4 sounds about right This is an IAT-85 (remote-controlled switch for overhead lines) on the hill near Beauficel.

The one that immediately springs to mind is "The Sloan Men" by David Nickle. I read it 15 years ago and it still makes me feel ill on so many levels

Harare Review of Books@hararereview.com · yesterday

What's the most memorable short story you've ever read?

I can't sleep and have been up in the night for Snacks on three separate occasions and on none of these occasions was I accosted by the Harpya, I was not even vouchsafed the rustle of its feathers or the click of its claws on nasty tile, and, in the words of Jilted John, I'm so upset Yeah yeah

Question pour les Bretons...: je passe sur Rennes ce weekend et le vendredi j'aimerais bien aller en soiree LGBT+, mais en cherchant en ligne je trouve pas grand-chose (bon il y a le Batchi il parait, mais les avis Reddit etc. sont plutot negatifs...) Du coup je cherche des reccs! RT bienvenus :)

The garden kitten now spends a good part of the early evening running around the house making an eerie high-pitched gobbling sound. I don't know if it's trying to miaow or is just taking the piss out of the owls,which are very vocal at the moment

Not much to do except prepare for my trip now. Had a little stagger about in the woods. No amethyst deceivers visible this year but there seem to be a lot of these tiny coconut- jellybean-looking chaps on mossy boughs

Only one half of the cherry tree is doing anything this year because of the drought but the left half is pretty committed to the bit

When daylight fails and night approaches, 'They' return... The 1928 first edition of H R Wakefield's first ghost story collection, another entrant for book cover of the day and another book I might possibly commit murder for (of which there is a shocking number). #WyrdWednesday #BookChatWeekly

Boredom status: Less than 24 hours after finishing my work marathon I've started doing some more work I don't have to do until next week just to have something to do It's got grainy black and white photographs of loaf cross-sections and also crumbs so quite a luxury production

I would like the body M John Harrison is wearing during his unexpected but very welcome rock-climbing scenes in this episode

Pat Ashe@patrickashe.bsky.social · 2y ago

I would like the t-shirt that Michael Moorcock is wearing in this 1979 Time Out Of Mind episode. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhSF...

I want to go to the sidesea and watch the sand set over the sun

Exciting slurry tank, was still seeping when this was taken There should be one in Thomas The Tank Engine. Taking suggestions for names

Why can't I have this dress Why can't I have a hand made of gold And a purple face Ok one out of three ain't bad

Saw the Backrooms film last night. My exposure to the original online stuff, and to creepypasta in general, has been almost non-existent but it still felt familiar from decades of short stories. The first half was better than expected, soothing and weird by turns. Later it gets too...

Just finished my work marathon. Exhausted and not in any state to embark on the 2-day packing and turd-polishing campaign required to make me presentable enough to show my face in Rennes, but there you go

My cold is better but I am in a state of physical and nervous prostration. Well, my road to wellness begins here. Today I placed an ad for a youthful, vivacious, credulous travelling-companion to join me and my doctor, a noted expert in the transfusion of blood, on a long tour of the Riviera.

Jared grappling with the big questions tonight

Young me with unrefined punk ideals would have called Vincent Price a sellout for all of the adverts he put his name to (so, so many). Me of right now mostly just admires his shameless lack of discrimination in getting that cash.

Conrad Veidt as Cesare in Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, c1920. Portrait by Franz Xaver Setzer

This week’s archive tv viewing was the John Brunner edition of the 1979 BBC series ‘Time Out of Mind’. Another fascinating time capsule, featuring some great interview footage. And I just had to smile at his musings on the double-edged nature of technology: “If we’re so clever, why aren’t we smart?”

Brouains in the evening.

One of my favourite Paul Bony windows at Brouains. I want to visit that fizzy limeade world in the circular panes #StainedGlassSunday

Well Brouains book box is getting into the spirit of the season. "Torture: consideration about tools" is Czech, I think, but offers eccentric, patent-like translation into English, Italian and German. I will be posting extracts from it when less busy

The casual rambler may assume this "Danger" sign refers to the half-collapsed footpath, but for a small consideration locals will tell you of the hoof fungus trampling hazard. Or you can save money and just walk right into it

Ear ache better now but the effect of a whole week doing nothing at all except working and honking and hacking into tissues, permanently lost in the foetid canyons of my mind, has not been good for morale. I can barely tell the difference between night and day

I haven't seen a single town here doing Hallowe'en decorations yet, but there is the odd flower about. I quite like these orange pod things. I don't know what they are but I suppose they escaped from a garden.

Well the wimd has abated now and power is back on, which is a relief as working in the car at night is not the same proposition as doing it on a sunny afternoon. We even managed a trip to the supermarket (what is a Severe Weather Warning in the face of Duffy's need for black Hallowe'en sweets?)