I went to Brill on Friday morning and met my host at the park and ride outside Oxford. The weather was good and the countryside looked inviting. They are almost at the end of a project to landscape their front garden � the surroundings of a pond that was there before the house was built. Its hard to imagine where the water springs from as the pond is about 600 feet above sea-level. Anyway newts were spotted swimming around the pond � the first time this year. Sometimes grass snakes are seen swimming in the pond after the newts. We spend the evening in the one of the two local pubs with some neighbours � it�s a very sociable village. On my last visit we had all been to a Puddings and Turns evening in the local social club � really rather good fun.

Yesterday we drove over to Chearsley which is about four miles from Brill overlooking the valley of the river Thame � a tributary of the Thames joing it between Oxford and Reading. I was surprised how wide the river is not that far from its source around Aylesbury. I think its likely that the river was a highway in pre-historic times. We looked at Chearsley church which may go back beyond the Norman conquest � it�s the first time I have been in a church for about three years. The atmosphere was very calm. Lunch in the local pub was surprisingly good washed down with Fuller�s beer. Chearsley has been used to film episodes of Midsummer Murders.

My hosts have a daughter who seems to be doing well as a professional singer.

http://www.cathybell.co.uk/biography

I showed my host James� recent posting on Obama�s nuclear policy on the LSE blog.

Returning to my e-mails I was surprised how many posts had arrived from Object Oriented Philosophy. Some are just observation on local or international events like the Polish air accident in Russia but at least half of them are philosophical engagements � often with points that have been mailed in. Its surprisingly good to see the latest philosophy unfolding day by day. Laurence mailed to say he had dived in and bought some Meillassoux � one of the French originators. I think I am sticking with Harman for a while and I am beginning to wonder about buying one of his books on Heidegger. Laurence can just go into Blackwells I imagine and pick up something this rare but I will have to rely on Amazon.

I am over halfway through the Miss M analysis.