Yesterday I woke up to snow at Middle Aston looking across the Cherwell Valley � a good place to do contemplate the white andscape, especially as I didn�t have to get anywhere until it had mostly melted. Middle Aston House is Edwardian and has an attractive garden and lake, with a terrace. The food is too good � I can remember when I was running a residential training outfit we made the food top notch to try to keep the customers in a good mood � and they include a lot of outdoor activities in their training exercises which must help with the diet. We didn�t do any raft building or aerial runways.

I tried to approach/leave MAH from the west and failed each time � not getting there in the dark its understandable as I couldnt see when I had crossed the Cherwell and it was time to turn off, but I didn�t manage to find the route out that I wanted - I ended up following the same lane to North Aston further up the Cherwell that I had followed by mistake on the way there. It was a pretty afternoon and I didn�t mind at all � still some odd patches of snow in sheltered corners - blue sky, white and grey clouds, spreading pink etc.

Facilitating the event itself went sort of OK although its not the kind of activity I am most comfortable at. The next task is to make sense of all the stuff that was written down in the course of the day � a task that is seldom carried out properly in my view probably because once its over everyone wants to put it put behind them not least the person running it. But the thing to do is to press on despite this and kick some shape into the material � something to do today. In fact the ability to do a systematic review is one I am promoting, not least to Leonardo.

On the relentless search for money, Alan put the bid to the ESRC in on time and I had my 40 minutes of advice in Birmingham with Leonardo. The Leonardo terms are very generous and so there are going to be too many applicants. The next phase will have to be refining the proposal so that it hits the official priorities � together with a serious effort not get enraged by the bureaucracy. Moral fibre needed.

My flat is cold � I need to get a heater for the living space.

Today is the launch of the National Manufacturing Skills Academy � I think I will skip that. Too much sociability for one week in the interests of improving UK manufacturing and engineering.

David Bloor�s book has arrived. I had forgotten that he has a section on Frege. It�s the obvious place to start. I read some Tractatus at MAH before breakfast � proposition 3 � there s a point at which it stops being simple and starts to get very abstract. Its not the first time I have spotted this point where the going suddenly gets tougher.

I listened to early 60s Nina Simone � a Carnegie Hall concert and a recording with a kind of chamber jazz orchestra � this orchestration stuff reaches forward to Donovan and John Cameron (no relation) , Judy Collins and Joshua Rifkin and our old friends. Miss Mitchell was in the FT yesterday, by the way.