I've just come back from spending a very pleasant Christmas in Uganda with my parents. My recording equipment made it through airport security (a small victory these days) so I was able to spend some time working on the outdoor album recording project. More details to follow but in the meantime, here are some photos.

The M8 was closed with drifts on the road
The lorries lay down, made angels of snow
Cars formed a conga but nobody danced
All the brains and the fingers had no freakin’ chance

Of getting to work, but there was no point
The blackouts remained, the panic was taut
And up in the sky the silver iodide
Lined every cloud high, made every cloud lie*

The lines were all down, the days were all dark
Lives undone and chaos was sparked
The cables installed along ocean floors
Is where we had lived too long for sure

Animals scoffed “Inadequate beasts!”
As digital kids fought over feed
There were fires on the ridges in no time at all
Weirded out voices and bangs on the door**

So we took a boat and sailed it for years
Attacked every month by monsters and fears
Through pestilent storms and cauldrons of sea
Till one day at last the doldrums we reached

Silence of calm. Stillness of sea.
Absence of wind. Banquet of peace.
I sit and write, watch you and the child
I catch a smile, I think we’ll be fine.

* Reference to cloud seeding -a form of weather modification that manipulates the fall of precipitation using substances such as silver iodide.
** Reference to a quote from 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy.