6 08/31/2001 To Venice. This is a magnificent place. Lots of people in St. Mark's Square. Take loads of photos. Why aren't there any loos in Venice? There might be but we couldn't find them. Found cafe which actually served coffee only, without meal, and then...the loo! Sue had just read Salley Vickers' 'Miss Garnet's Angel' which is set in Venice. I bought it for her birthday not knowing we'd be going there. We went to look for Campo dell' Angelo Raffeale which features in the book, and found it. The book, besides describing a huge statue of the angel Raphael with a fish and a dog on the front of the church, is a re-working of the Tobias story in the Apocrypha. Typically, it lay behind scaffolding! Managed to see a small frescoe of Rapphael, though. Incredibly we met two people outside the church who were there for the same reason. Like us, the wife had read the book and the husband hadn't. Venice is a place I could live and work. The canals are beautiful, the people vibrant and alive, and the setting just out of this world. Found a brilliant CD shop, too. Journey back through incredible storm and, boy!, did it rain!

5 08/30/2001 Piecing things together in my mind.

4 08/29/2001 A long climb (505 steps) up to the Savica waterfall. Again, very warm. this was well worth the effort. The fall was magnificent. Trees are beautiful colours. Before that went into the church at Bohinj. Medieval fescoes of the beheading of John the Baptist. Synchronicity at work. G. agrees with synchronicity principle. Found 'Life Is Only Real...' tough-going.

3 08/28/2001 I usually dream a lot whilst on holiday and this year's output is no exception. There are, currently, several people who are featuring in these dreams. Things are working themselves out. In reality we walk up the gorge to Slap Mostnice. Very deep ravines here. The waterfall at the end, after 7 miles of hiking, is a little disappointing. It's obvious: no rain, little water. Coffee at the end. Listen to blues on a German radio station at the cafe near the waterfall. Johnny Winter? Bakerloo Bluesline? Clem Clemson used to play for the latter. I always felt he played his best with them, and not nearly as well when he joined Colosseum and, then, Humble Pie replacing Peter Frampton. Things on my mind today. Sue says to forget it all and let the mind rest. She's right. Later see large woodpecker in the trees on the return journey. (Had a weird 'vision' later whilst sitting in bed reading: ' a giant passes me in a forest. He climbs up a ladder onto a different storey').

2 08/27/2001 A coach trip around the Julian Alps. Huge ascent up the pass near Triglav: 52 bends, but we stop and take a break at the Russian Chapel built in memory of those who died building this pass. Lunch at Bovec. This town was hit by an earthquake during the 1980's, but has now been rebuilt. Blinding sunlight. Waiter in the restaurant seems a little impatient. Diffuse situation by saying not to worry as the British will soon be leaving town. Damn migraine again. But this dissolves again after lunch. Incredible temperatures. Walk up to the church and follow the stations of the cross inside - very moving. Feel like crying, but not sure why. Into Italy, and everything looks rusty as compared to Slovenia. Return. Writing this back at hotel on the balcony. Take down the chant on the back of a 200 Sit note. Mountains hazy and blue. Mosquito kills a fly. We watch the drama as it unfolds.

1 08/26/2001 Awoke suddenly this morning. Strange dreams: 'trying find out the meaning of someone's name in an E-mail, then find another friend's de-capitated head in the toilet'. We walked around the lake today and, as Sue swam in the lake, I wrote a few postcards. Lots of dragonflies. One, in particular, likes me. These Diary entries are getting shorter as I begin to r-e-l-a-x: ahhhhhhhh......

7 08/25/2001 Staggered down to breakfast still in sleep. At 9-00 we take the bus back to Bohinj. To find, yes!, a band setting upside outside our window. Suffer in silence. In the afternoon climbed up to Planica (717m). This is a little like Helvellyn, in Lakeland, but covered by trees. The mountains are quite incredible, about two or three times higher than those we know in the Lakes. Very hot! Migraine! Discovered migraines are caused by two related factors: heat and stress. Watch paragliders take off from the summit. Descent on a limestone covered path. Reached hotel in a shakey state. Headache passes after meal.

6 08/24/2001 This is a sad day. It would have been my dad's birthday, so I phoned my mother who was, naturally, upset. Then take a bus to Lake Bled. Climb up to Bled Castle very, very high on a rock overlooking the lake. Look over to where Jacob, Susanna, Bill, Catherine and I sat last year on the jetty at Tito's former holiday residence (he wasn't there!). Mount Triglav, the highest in Slovenia at somewhere in the region of 8000 m., is clearly visible. Baroque frescoes in the museum. Bus to Radovljica. Sort out a hotel (same as last year), then walk around old town. Begin Sara Sviri's The Taste Of Hidden Things. Hoiday times are spent reading/researching. First chapter about the 'hidden' the heart and love. To the concert. Baroque Trio Sonatas brilliantly performed by Ensemble Koln. Coffee and wine afterwards. Tjasa gives me CDs which include recording of my 'My Lute, Awake' which Virelai performed last year. Back to hotel. No sleep tonight: dance band have set up in the park and are playing Slovenian, and other, favourites. Managed to finally get to sleep. a 3-00 approx. to be awoken at 6-00 by trucks on the building site. Rock on!

5 08/23/2001 Y'day a straight uninterrupted flight from Manchester to Lubljana in Slovenia. Weather not as warm as last year and similar to that in UK. Bus ride to Bohinj (pronounced Bocking). Arrive 20-00 to find meal waiting in room. Sue selects 4 shelves for her clothing to my 1! Drink whiskey and watch the bats fly. Owls hooting in the distance. A very long time since I was able to sit and do nothing and be totally present. Sound of crickets. Read some of Gurdjieff's 'Life Is Only Real When "I Am" '. Today breakfast and meeting in hotel just down the road. Sort out the money and buy a phone card. Then a long walk all around the lake. Blazing sunshine, a long, green/grey snake in the grass at the far end (3 women warn us off otherwise we'd have walked straight over it). Shrine of the Virgin Mary just before had large triangular moths flying around it. Then we saw a huge swallow-tail butterfly. Rested beside the lake. Even warmer. Took photos. Continued with G. Phoned Tjasa who reserved us 2 tickets for the Radovljica Festival on Friday evening. Evening meal then phoned home. Christopher's gone to London. Elizabeth has passed the two GCSE's which have, so far, eluded her: Maths and Science. Sit on balcony and drink whiskey, ma non troppo. Continue with G. Page 79 on the nail (Penguin/Arcana edition).

4 08/22/2001 Yesterday we went into town looking for new curtains, and happened to bump into an old friend of mine who I haven't seen for many years. He is a fine pianist and had come over to Blackpool for the day to see the Sea Life Centre. Over a cup of tea we talked about the pressures of life as professional musicians. My friend told us that he'd done reasonably well here, and in Europe, as a performing pianist, and had subsequently moved to another country where things really began to get going for his career. Whilst over there he also became a notable teacher, and eventually got engaged to a student who he taught to a very high standard. He then related to us how his fiancee had entered herself for an important piano competition. After the results had announced his fiancee as winner, she looked him straight in the eye and said: 'Thanks for everything...I won't be needing you again!', handed him back the engagement ring, and simply walked away without saying anything else. He never saw her again. It took my friend ten years to overcome these ten seconds of trauma. He subsequently suffered a breakdown, returned to the UK and decided he could never really trust anyone enough to commit to them. He has since stopped performing and teaching and has chosen an alternative career.

On a different note, just before I went to play at the folk club in St. Annes with Ken last week, I received an E-mail from Peter Sinfield saying 'go break a string!' I wrote back saying it might be difficult as I was actually playing the flute, but I would take my Zen shakuhashi and then it might be possible to break that string. I arrived home to find that it had inspired Peter to write a haiku:

The notes of a flute
Fall across an empty glass
A string unbroken.

(A haiku for AK. PS, Aug 2001)

Markus Reuter also wrote with more information about his new CD 'The Cult of: Bibbiboo'. I'd written on my Diary, while listening to the CD, that I'd heard a soprano singing. Markus wrote: 'The soprano is Bibiboo...She took us by surprise....We improvise all our music in real-time. One of Bernhard's synths, an old Korg Poly-800 (with broken batteries) was not intended to be used for that track. Halfway through the recording we suddenly heard the voice and were literally shocked, but continued playing. We didn't have an idea where the voice was coming from. We still don't know, although we know it was from the Poly-800. This is not a joke! It happened!...Somehow the synth must have gotten programmed and played by the Midi arpeggiator Bernhard was using. Since the synth didn't have working batteries Bibiboo's voice was lost when we had to switch to the Poly-800'.

Spent yesterday listening to George Rochberg's 3rd and 4th string quartets. I hear the influence of late Cesar Frank, Dvorak, Schoenberg, Tippett and, perhaps more importantly, Shostakovich. The fourth movement, of the 3rd quartet, sounds to me like a parody of the second movement of Shostakovich's 8th quartet, while the third movement - a set of Variations - is super-Romantic, beginning Cesar Frank-like before transforming into the language of Verklarte Nacht. The A major key-centre is eroded by all the dense chromaticism. The piece caused quite a stir when it was premiered in the very early '70's. Rochberg's 17 year old son died of a brain tumour some years earlier, and the composer tried to find a language to express his grief. He'd previously worked with serialism but was finding it to be an empty, dried-up language and ill-adapted for his needs at that time. In the end he rediscovered the language of Brahms and crossed it with his more contemporary language. I personally like this music for its expression. The 4th Quartet (called 'Ironica') is shorter and includes an incredible Hindemith-like fugue empowered by Brahms. The movement ends on a C6 chord, and yet the other movements again betray the influence of late Shostakovich. Rochberg's decision to return to using tonality as the central feature of his musical langauge, sent shockwaves through the establishment. Good old Rochberg!

The day finished with a programme about three young Italian girls who murdered a nun. The programme made the point that Marilyn Mansun's music had been the influence for the girls' intentions. Other points which came out were that the girls had no real father-figures in their lives and had also been associated with Satanism. Marilyn Mansun became the centre-piece for the programme and, although I'd heard his music only briefly before, it gave me a chance to assess it for a few moments. For me, I think it's probably safer to stick to the Rochberg.

3 08/21/2001 Yesterday I received some of the King Crimson Collectors' Club releases, which were listened to throughout the course of the day. No. 1, KC at The Marquee, 1969, includes a bonus track: a song/piece called 'Trees' which is most revealing, although it's actually a recording from the Fairfield Halls in Croydon, dated October 17, 1969. This piece, as far as I can tell from a first listening, includes prototype material for the Bolero section of Lizard, a section from 'Birdman' (on the McDonald and Giles album), 'A Man, A City' (which later became 'Pictures Of A City' from In The Wake Of Poseidon) and Robert Fripp also writes that it included material that "influenced the construction of Islands". I also listened to some of the Vroom sessions, and Discipline at Moles Club, Bath, April 30, 1981. All very helpful in my ongoing research into the group. The version of Larks' II, played by KC IV, is VERY powerful. There's a lot of energy in the '80's Crimson at this early stage. For me, it's interesting to see how a group develops its material and arrives, eventually, at the definitive studio recording. It's as though playing a song/piece in a 'live' siuation allows for other ideas to worm their way into the fabric of the music, similar to how a composer allows a piece-in-progress to develop by putting it aside for a time.

I was also thrilled to read on Sid Smith's Diary that Virgin are planning a new digital edition/re-release of the McDonald and Giles album. This is great news!

The studio session with Ken Nicols was completed in around 45 minutes. Ken had written the music out - a beautiful instrumental called 'Summer At The Wailing Wall' - so all I had to do was walk in and play. I still managed to play like an idiot in places. However, after three takes K. felt he had enough to work on. This new acoustic album is released in October, to coincide with Ken's departure from The Albion Band.

Came home, got out the ladders and, with Christopher's help, painted the eaves below the roof of the house, followed by the porch. Complete! We returned the ladders to friends Derek and Lilian last evening.

A cheque has just arrived for the commission from Katharine Duran. Excellent! The Diary entry is accompanied by a record I recently found in a second hand record shop. It's by Nick Pickett and is called 'Silver Leaves'. I once saw Nick Pickett playing as support for Barclay James Harvest. This purchase clears many discussions I've had with Jacob Heringman about whether or not the early music specialist, Philip Pickett, was responsible for this album. I find I was wrong all the way along! There is one further thing about this release: it includes a version of 'America' by Paul Simon. Also found a cheapy CD by Vanilla Fudge yesterday. This is a band that passed me by, but is it just me or do early Uriah Heep/early Deep Purple sound like them or what?!

2 08/20/2001 The sun has returned, although autumn is in the air. A speedy Diary entry as I am on my way to Ken Nicols' to add some flute to his new acoustic album. This is different from the other, larger project I worked on with him.

Yesterday we walked around the road, at Scorton, with Kevin and Linda, after completing the painting in the bedroom.

No composing at this present time: resting before the onslaught begins again. Last evening listened to 'Exposure'. Although this is part of a triumvirate of works of Robert Fripp's (Peter Gabriel II & Daryl Hall's 'Sacred Songs' being the others) it strikes me that it continues the line from Eno's 'Here Come The Warm Jets' and Peter Hammill's 'Nadir's Big Chance'. It also bridges the gap from 'Red' to Fripp's work with the Bowie, The Roches, Blondie, The League of Gentlemen and The Talking Heads before eventually arriving at 'Discipline' in 1981. But that's fairly obvious! What it does show is that during these interim 'research' periods Fripp was learning what the next stage of KC might be, which meant another version of the group could exist within a new period of time. At that time it signalled 'goodbye prog, hello New Wave' as, I sense, at the moment it might be 'hello metal' with a new kind of sophistication.

1 08/19/2001 This morning slept till 10-00. Tired. Didn't complete DIYing till around 22-30 last evening. The bedroom walls are transformed and just when I thought I was safe to sit down and relax Sue said, 'let's rip-up the carpet!'. So, that's what we did. Now bare floorboards await a coat of some floorboard paint which Sue has seen in some DIY shop which, no doubt, we'll seek out today and apply. The painting process yesterday was accompanied by: Kate Bush's 'The Kick Inside'; Mostly Autumn's 'The Last Bright Light'; The League Of Gentlemen's 'Thrang Thrang Gozinbulx'; Sunday All Over The World's 'Kneeling At The Shrine'. The LOG and the SAOTW albums are interesting in that they strike me as being 'research' albums, marking the transition from one period of Fripp's musical thinking to the next. Perhaps I'm wrong? 'Freedom' on the SAOTW album (a Fripp/Toyah piece) is highly meaningful: 'I was never told that the good things in life were...totally wrong; I was never told that the good things in life would...hold you down; I was never told that the good things in life would...trip me up; I was never told that the good things in life were...out of my reach; I was never told that the good things in life would...trick me; I was never told that the good things in life...glisten in the rain; I was never told that the good things in life...come from the sky; I was never told that the good things in life...are invisible friends; I was never told that the good things in life...aren't in the hands of others; I was never told that the good things in life...would be here for ever.'

At 22-00 last evening an event took place which I'd been waiting for all week, and beyond. The UK premiere of Gorecki's new work, 'Salve, Sidus Polonorum' for chorus and orchestra, was unveiled at the Proms. I turned on the radio in eager anticipation to hear Stephen Jackson speak eloquently about this new work. But, then...the music started and...what a profound sense of disappointment I felt! I listened quietly from beginning to end trying to enter into the work but, no! Perhaps I approached it with the wrong attitude? Structurally, it seemed lop-sided. Is it good enough for a composer having percussionists wildly strike unaccompanied tam-tams? I believe percussion instruments, in the context of large ensemble music, have to be supported in some way. I felt I'd heard it all before, more successfully achieved by Part and Tavener. The gamelan-like close also somehow seemed unconvincing. Lots of applause as the work closed, but I just wandered around the house feeling like I'd been let down in some way. The music failed to go 'beyond' music in a way that SAOTW's 'Freedom' manages to do.

7 08/18/2001 Yesterday was a day of synchronistic twinnings. Went to Liverpool and met with Elisabeth Klein. Too much discussed to write into this Diary entry. E., like everyone else I know apart from the 'establishment', is concerned about how marketing is taking priority over the spiritual in the world of contemporary music. She told me about one Composer she knows, who had that 'something', has blown it in favour of big $$$$s. She also makes the point that his early gift has given up and left. Suffice to say that the rest of the conversation we had centred around the music of Josef Matthias Hauer, whose music is playing at this moment, Schoenberg, Balzac, Theosophy and the Music of the Spheres.

I arrived home to find an E-mail from David Fideler: Song is the primordial act. Of course it's out of keeping with contemporary music! 'Enchantment' and 'incantation' literally mean 'to suffuse with song'. All of this was, in some way, anticipated on August the 8th, and written into the Diary on August 9th. Not entirely unexpected, then. But when things come from the realm of the 'unseen' then it's exciting.

I also learnt one very important thing about Hauer. His philosophy was this: 'In the beginning was the melos'.

Dreamt last night: 'I have a computer that can only be accessed through the Uroboros, which is an image on the screen. This Uroboros = song. Later I speak to a woman about the group America. I say they were good because their songs were memorable.'

On another note: first, Jacob, sorry to hear about your accident with the sharp implement. Hope the toe heals! Secondly, a note to the Vicar: 'Sir, if I can be of any assistance to you in the area of Composition, then please do send me an E-mail through DGM'. I also replied to an E-mail from Sid about the possibility of taking part, in some way, in a book launch/KC convention he'd like to put together. Other E-mails from Bert Lams, Barbara and I-C friends. Completed the Eliade (the final chapter was particularly good and mentioned T.S. Eliot) and began the book by Anthony Stevens.

6 08/17/2001 It's grey and raining, and I'm off to Liverpool to visit Elisabeth Klein in around two hours, hoping to reach Liverpool Lime Street station for around 13-00.

This Diary entry is accompanied by Centrozoon's 'The Cult of: Bibbiboo'. Markus Reuter warned me that it is a complex work and it is! There's a great deal going on - the textures are full and layered. Markus plays touch guitar, with Bernhard Wostheinrich on synthesizers and percussion. There is some rather beautiful Soundscaping, especially at the beginning of the title piece, but this is very often balanced at the bottom end by rhythmically inventive percussion or, at the top end, by harder-edged, fast guitar passages. On piece 5, Deliverance, there is also a sampled/treated solo soprano placed right at the back of the mix behind the Soundscapes. Like Henry Warwick's 'Keraunograph', this is just the kind of album I would buy because it pays repeated listenings. I ask myself the question, 'how the hell do they do that?!', or, 'what is going on there?!'. It's not the kind of music I write myself because I don't know how to! The pieces are very long: the title track is over 20 minutes of music, split into shorter sections. I am waiting to walk into Piccadilly Records in Manchester and see this album and think, 'I heard that first!'

Yesterday applied a layer of damp-proof paint to the bedroom walls after sanding them the other day. This is ready for the new aquamarine paint Sue has bought. I'm colour blind so when she asks if I like a particular colour my reply is usually along the lines, 'why bother to ask you know I can't see it if you like it fine just buy it it's OK by me'. I can see basic colours, but I have a problem with red-green (yes! I can see traffic lights! How many times have I been asked that question?...) and off-shoots. When I was at Primary School all those years ago, a teacher called Miss Moore used to ask each child to the front of the class to identify colours on painted balloons on a sheet on the blackboard. I found this traumatic to say the least, so I used to memorise what the other children said. There was one balloon in the top right hand corner which looked red to me, but it was, apparently, purple. Thankfully the teacher left at the end of my first year.

Nearly completed the book by Mircea Eliade. Next on the list is: John Storey - Cultural Theory and Popular Culture - An Introduction (Prentice Hall); Anthony Stevens - Ariadne's Clue - A Guide to the Symbols of Humankind (Penguin). I also await a couple of others which should be arriving any day.

5 08/16/2001 I've just returned from taking the car in for its annual service in Fleetwood. Walked the three miles home along the back lane. Strong smell of grass from the fields, and there is Circus King pitched in one of the fields close by. Called in at the post office to despatch a copy of 'In The Wake Of Poseidon' to a friend. As I walked in the front door it began to rain - hard! Just missed it. Find that Markus Reuter's 'Centrozoon - the cult of: Bibbiboo' promo pack CD has just arrived which will be played later. Thanks for this, Markus! Today is an important day for Elizabeth and Adam: their AS Level results are announced and they are off to collect them from college. This is what they have to say. They are writing this in their own hands:

Elizabeth: 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'. Adam: 'i am really nervous (i'm elizabeth's boyfriend), but there's always next year if i've failed'. *

Yesterday spent removing mortar stains from the brickwork (what a job!), then practising the flute for Ken's studio session on Monday. I use Trevor Wye's 'Flute Practice Books' (Novello), especially the first three volumes: a) Tone; b) Technique; c) Articulation (not for removing mortar from walls). These are concentrated exercises and cut down time that may be spent on endless pretty Victorian studies by such composers as Drouet or Kohler and so on. I've used these books since 1982. When I used to go for lessons with T.W. he gave me the prototypes in MS form as the books were yet to be published. T.W. studied with Marcel Moyse and, together with Geoffrey Gilbert and William Bennett, laid the foundations for the French flute school in the UK.

Also a note from David Singleton via Laura, at DGM, saying that there's a very strong possibility that the recording of Soundscape orchestration project might go ahead early next year. Let's hope!

(*Later: they have telephoned to say they have got the grades to continue to their A Level choices. Well done, E & A!)

3 08/14/2001 A day of filling holes in walls, painting the top of the house (not the roof) black, taking my mother to collect her new car with Kathy and children, and playing flute for Ken Nicol at a folk club in St. Annes-on-Sea this evening. 'Would you like to come along to Kitty's Bar and play flute on a couple of songs? I have a gig there', said K. when he phoned on Monday evening. He also asked if I'd like to play flute on another studio session next Monday for my his new acoustic album. I answered in the affirmative to both questions, and have just returned from said gig. Kitty's bar is in the basement of a hotel on Clifton Drive close to St. Annes Square. I was surprised when I arrived at the venue: there were around 100 people in the audience, many more than I anticipated. Ken played two sets, which both lasted around 45 minutes each, and I played on two songs which I hadn't heard previously and we hadn't rehearsed. Both were fairly straightforward. Good sound, nice PA system. Later, looked over 'Between Two Worlds'. I wondered if I'd return to this piece and think it dreadful, but it might just work...

2 08/13/2001 Elisabeth has just, this very minute, walked in through the door after returning from Turkey where she's been on holiday. She's returned bearing gifts: banana wine - a Turkish speciality. She's also returned from astronomical temperatures to this: rain, greyness and general yuk!

Yesterday, we stripped the wallpaper off the bedroom wall in preparation for filling up giant cracks which have developed in the plaster, and then painting. This took ALL day. But, good opportunity for listening to music: Gurdjieff/De Hartmann piano music; Mostly Autumn - The Last Bright Light; a talk on Charles Ives' 'Three Places In New England' on Radio 3 which was very revealing; last evening's Prom which included Boulez's 'Notations' (brilliant!), and a beautiful new Cello Concerto by Tobias Picker. What an incredible work! Very impressive. Picker is an American composer. I have the impression that what is going on, compositionally speaking in the USA, has a freshness not apparent here in the UK/Europe. John Adams' work has impressed me much of late. Finished the day listening to 'Lizard', and the last part of David Sylvian's 'Dead Bees On A Cake'. Currently reading Mircea Eliade's 'The Myth Of The Eternal Return' (Arcana). Eliade says EVERYTHING has an archetypal basis.

Also did a little work on the piece for Gothic Voices in the morning. This has potential. E-mails from V. in Slovenia, and loads of others from IC friends. Markus Reuter (Europa String Choir/Ian Boddy) made contact, too. Also in the process of changing E-mail address.

1 08/12/2001 It rained all day yesterday and it's raining again, heavily, this morning. The rainwater is bouncing off the brickwork of our house. The DIY regime has been worth it. For the first time for ages I took things reasonably easy yesterday. Listened to the Mostly Autumn CD twice, and read sections of a book about John Cage. This composer, or rather his compositional processes, interest me. Also completed Sylvie, Isis and Octavia by Gerard de Nerval. Nerval fell in love with an actress/singer called Jenny Conlon. Many of his stories refer to the relationship. He met with a firm refusal from her, and slid into depression, madness and death. Aurelia, the name he gave her and the title of the first story in the book, catalogues some of the episodes of madness he fell into. Poor man. He ended up by hanging himself with, I believe, a length of her silk. The piece I wrote for Catherine King, called Seule, is a setting of one of Nerval's poems.

On Friday a strange thing happened. In 1999, whilst on holiday in Cumbria, I bought Sue a book by Nina Green called 'A Grave Affair' (Pendragon Press). It had been newly published and Sue thought it looked good. In 2000, when we returned to Cumbria for our annual holiday, there was another new book on sale by Nina Green called 'Dark Star'. Sue read both of them and thought they were really good. During a coffee break one morning at school I happened to see a newspaper article about Nina Green, with a photo of her included. I tore the article out of the newspaper, brought it home, showed Sue and kept it in the book. On Friday, whilst taking my mother to see her new car at the garage guess who was filling her car up with petrol? Yes, Nina Green! (I have a good memory for people, places and events). She was surprised and exclaimed, 'Fame at last!' when I introduced myself. I explained that I hadn't actually read the books but would do. I had a strong feeling that we would eventually meet. I have no idea why.

7 08/11/2001 Another entry from the 'indefatigable Andrew' as David S. has written in his G/B posting. Very fatigued today, David, I can assure you having been DIYing yesterday (almost literally), driving here, there and everywhere to help my mother buy a new car and spending the day clearing papers which have sat on top of my very ancient Chappell piano in a heap since goodness knows when. Also sent letters around the place, answered numerous E-mails and received the new Mostly Autumn CD, 'The Last Bright Light'. It is playing as this is being written. There is one thing certain: Heather Findlay's voice has really developed compared to 'The Spirit Of Autumn Past'. There has been a similar change in compositional processes apropos this band as compared to White Willow, although both of their respective styles remains consistent.

This Diary has also helped to re-awaken myself to my thoughts and life from 1998. When it comes an end in 2002 (Sept.) it will be valuable to look back over the three years to see what kind of transformation took place. The main thing, I think, besides showing how transformation has, to some extent, been realised, it will be more interesting to guess at how it might be developed from that time on. Many post-PhD composers go abroad for a kind of 'experience' year. My 'experience' years have been valuable to me as working as part of DGM both on my own pieces, arrangements, a book proposal and coming into contact with many people (for example, John Mercer at Riverrun) with different outlooks who have helped towards this self-transformation whether they knew it or not. The way things have changed are too numerous to list here. I'm expecting that by Sept. 2002 even more will have changed, as expected.

One thing has stuck with me about yesterday, though. My mother simply said, while we were driving through Blackpool: 'Geoff (my father) died eleven weeks ago'. This sounds strange but I realised that I hadn't accepted his death fully. Death. I think I had the impression that he'd been away and was coming back. And it struck me in a way that I wasn't expecting although I didn't let my mother see my reaction.

Another new piece for the Proms last evening. No comment. The second piece on the programme I can say something about: Lutoslawski's 4th Symphony. What a brilliant work! Tavener and Lutoslawski are very different Composers. One thing is clear to me from hearing the pieces: they remain connected to their feeling sides.

Also another interesting thing happened yesterday, but I'll write about this over the next day or so.

6 08/10/2001 4-00: sleepless night. Thoughts spinning around the mind. Previous day spent up ladders, patching-up the brickwork, and painting the drains. Over-tired. My sons, Nicholas and Christopher, were of immense help. I got 20 feet up the ladder to paint the top of the drain, momentarily looked down and vertigo! Nicholas suggested he should paint the top section of drain, seeing that I may not live to tell the tale, so he did. Went out for a meal after the jobs were done to celebrate completion of the jobs. Only one thing remains: protective liquid now has to be painted on the wall. It is a big wall. It will be a long job.

While up the ladder caught the repeat performance of Tavener's 'Song Of The Cosmos' on Radio 3. It is vaguely reminiscent of his earlier piece, 'Eternity's Sunrise'. It has also left an impression on me. Of course, others may feel nothing about it. Why did it leave a mark? I have this sort of love/hate relationship with Tavener's music: sometimes I think it's marvellous, and sometimes I think it isn't. I think it may well be the case that his better pieces, from the most recent period, 'sing'. There is melody and harmony there. Much contemporary music doesn't do this. Composers think its old-fashioned to 'sing' melodically. My own feeling is that many of them couldn't sing in the first place. With the decline of singing in schools and as a collective phenomenon this wouldn't be surprising. I'm not worried about the finer details of the structure of this new Tavener piece: the melodic lines or how the harmony unfolds or any of any of these academic cliches which people band about. In this case this isn't my prime concern. I'm not even interested, apropos this piece, in the idea of 'tradition' (there are several ideas of 'tradition' being banded about, too). The fact is that this piece, for me, is rather good and it seems to work. Why? I don't know. It just 'is'. At its most basic (and this is where formal/structural signifiers have to enter in to make sense of what's going on) it seems to be a verse/refrain form. But a huge amount of music takes on this shape: from Xenakis, to Tippett, to Thomas Morley, to King Crimson, to Elbow, to White Willow, to Ornette Coleman, to just about everyone I can think of. Essentially, is verse/refrain, along with the dance, the most very basic and, therefore, the most traditional of 'traditional' forms? Call/response? Cantor (solo)/people (chorus)? Precentor/choir? I'm guessing that J.G. Frazer might say that song and rhythm, passed from soloist to people - individual to the collective, the distributor of the 'mysteries' to the receivers of the 'mysteries' - is probably where we all came in. And then...progress... . Or maybe not. The story of this world might well be, in the final analysis, regress. Something has been lost. But I just wonder if Tavener, as he has sought to do from the very beginning of his career as a Composer, has re-discovered the primordial. Of course there are those who say that he has lost it. Those are, generally, the academics. There are other sides to this story that aren't worth going into here.

While painting also listened to Peter Sinfield's 'Still'; BJH's 'Once Again'; Radiohead's 'Amnesiac'; T2's 'It'll All Work Out In Boomland'; Mostly Autumn's 'The Spirit Of Autumn Past'.

Elisabeth wrote. We will probably be meeting next Tuesday. 'Between Two Worlds' has also been going around my head. Could there be another solution to how this begins rather than what I've written? Could the coda the placed at the beginning? Unsure...

5 08/09/2001 There are days and there are days and yesterday was a day. I wrote that it was the 'day of the ogdoad' without realising what I was writing before things began to happen: I'd simply noticed that it was 8/8. Much of this was centred around a note I received from Elisabeth Klein which has implications for my creative future. How this will develop is unknown but if my intuition tells me anything, then it tells me that I'm on the right track.

In the afternoon drove to Fleetwood then to Calder Vale. Grey skies, but it didn't rain. Walked up through the valley to St. John's Church, and walked along the lane. Footpaths have now be re-opened. Lots of wildflowers in the hedgerows: dog-roses, honeysuckle and so on. Looking for kingfishers who refuse to be drawn out of hiding, but saw several fly-catchers, and ducks galore. The weather is better today so maybe, just 'maybe', those damn drainpipes will get a lick of paint. The first thing is to get the ladders which I cancelled yesterday till next week thinking rain was immanent.

Katharine also wrote to confirm receipt of 'Fruhlingsregen' and the German radio station got back to me re the programme note/biog. Managed to correct the copying error in 'Between Two Worlds' and became convinced that I should have written longer lines for the guitar, but that, if Robert decides to use it, he can expand on what's there. It's more of an 'ideas' piece anyway which the musicians can use in any way they like. Then read the material that Elisabeth had sent which is greatly exciting because it reflects not only my current musical thinking but, in part, some of the ideas that I'd used unconsciously in the guitar and strings piece. This became even more exciting when I discovered in some of my more recent pieces, including the guitar and strings piece, that Golden Section falls in such precise places that it's uncanny. It's an unusual feeling when the 'unseen' begins to work in the way it has been of late. It's as if one has to be prepared to work in an empty sort of way, knowing that it is not one's sole responsibility for developing the greater picture.

Accompaniment to this Diary entry is The Webb Brothers' 'Maroon', and before that Elbow's 'Asleep In The Back'. I find the Elbow album slightly frustrating as it never really opens out, but it seems clear that they have been listening to that great big organ sound that Genesis used during 'Nursery Cryme' and 'Foxtrot'. Notice that Goldfrapp's 'Lovely Head' (the whistling one), from 'Felt Mountain' is being used as a TV ad. This is playing on my Walkman now, but back to Webb Bros. and 'Suddenly Awake' which is a great song. Also listened to 'The ConstruKction Of Light' last evening. The more it gets played the more it gets under my skin. I think the title piece is just very, very good. The tension/resolution schemes in KC albums allows for constant re-visits - for me, anyway. Also, I often wonder just what the hell they're doing technically. The music opens out successfully, too. In other words it has FORM. Some music is just too open, and some is too 'closed' and some doesn't know what to do and this is the impression I get with some of the newer bands. This probably says more about me than the music under observation. But, all in all, the right music for the right moment. (Later: got the ladders and on the way to collect them dicussed, with Christopher, the possibility that the newer bands [many of them] have one foot in the past [i.e. quotationsville=intertextuality] and most of them are, therefore, in the Pomoville. Narrative, for the most part, goes out of the window. There is nothing beyond the text. Pomo! This is why the music is closed. Romantic rhetoric has been stripped-away. And this seems to be the level on which a band like Radiohead operates, as far as I can see.)

4 08/08/2001 The day of the ogdoad but it rains, blows and stoppeth my labour on drain pipes.

Yesterday, I went into town and xeroxed/bound three copies of 'Between Two Worlds' to be sent to Scott, Robert and David. Even after it was done and posted a copying error was discovered. Just as it was completed a parcel came through the post of the next RvR composition project. A few days rest and then on with research for that...then the piece for Gothic Voices. I'm expecting the White Willow demo to arrive at some point in the near future, too, and then it'll be back to teaching in September. Life seems to be divided up by composition projects/teaching/hols.

Last evening listened to Schnittke's Concerto Grosso No. 1 with score. This is a staggering work. I not only like it but, musically, it has something. On first hearing it reminds me of a beefed-up Shostakovich, but with more controlled dissonance. The resolution of tension, from section to section, is handled brilliantly and the parodies of Baroque and popular styles are very effective. Composers living in Eastern Europe and Russia seemed to formulate alternatives to serialism which have had far-reaching implications for us in the West during recent times. Lutoslawski, Ligeti, Gorecki, Part, Schnittke and Sofia Gubaidulina are Composers, and these are only the 'biggies'.

Interesting reviews about the Tool/KC concerts. I look forward to hearing the new music which emerges from these times of change for King Crimson. This Diary entry is accompanied by the Mostly Autumn CD, 'The Spirit Of Autumn Past'. This group obviously go to the the Lake District: there is a song/piece called 'Styhead Tarn' (I've stood there many times, as it sits in the hause between the Scafells, Great Gable). I await the arrival of their new 3rd album 'The Last Bright Light'.

Interesting feedback about TFTO from Orn, Barrie and Scott. I think it's agreed that the album is interesting, you had to 'be there' and that KC were definitely doing more interesting things, musically speaking.

E-mails from German radio re performance by Fretwork of Afterwords in late September. Programme note/biog sent out.

3 08/07/2001 It looks like autumn has struck us a heavy blow. It's grey, damp and chilly and I want to paint the drainpipes but can't. Even arranged to borrow a set of ladders to get up to the high guttering. No chance of that happening today!

Discovered that 'Between Two Worlds' required more work yesterday. The title has more about it than when it first suggested itself, making it more multi-layered than I previously thought: a) the world of electric (guitar) and acoustic (strings); b) improvised overlapping with written (aural against codified material); c) Eastern rhythms (Indian) with Western; d) Soundscapes that don't necessarily have to rhythmically align with the conducted strings; e) mode against major scale (i.e. A minor Aeolian against Ab major). The last point is interesting because C natural is the pivot between the two pitch areas and is, metaphorically, the 'still point' or the axis on which the whole piece revolves, as is the short, rhythmically precise guitar guitar solo in the dead centre, which hovers over the loops and the pulsing strings. Should be able to complete this this morning and take it to be xeroxed and bound.

Heard a new piece on the radio from the Proms last evening. I'd been waiting all week for this, and read all about it in the Proms guide. However, it was very disappointing. I tire of hearing music which sounds academic and music which lacks a feeling side. I don't believe it was all the composer's fault, either. You can tell composers (composers as against Composers) who have University backgrounds. I was and wasn't, being too old for real damage to be done. I had many influences other than the generally accepted canon of works to be studied. However, I was once told that I couldn't write like Arvo Part because it wasn't in our language. That little phrase stuck with me. Whose language??!! I often wonder back to that phrase, and how the powers-that-be decide what music is going to continue to be fashionable. I have a feeling that the UK compositional establishment is run by a kind of academic 'mafia'. Of course, it's a case of jobs for the boys. It's very strange how the music of Tavener, Gorecki and Part isn't as popular now as it was in the '80's within the academic fray. I once had an interesting converation with Jacob Holm-Lupo who told me that he had decided to study Composition and gone along to a certain Conservatoire for lessons to be told that his ideas were 'old-fashioned'. When he was asked for the contemporary composers he'd been listeing to he mentioned Tavener and Part only to be told that they were now old-fashioned and that things had moved on. And yet, if it wasn't for the likes of T & P audiences would dwindle to nothing. Fact! Intellectualism/academicism is certainly at the core of what is going on, but where? Not in the real world. (What is the 'real' world?) Who decides? The university is not the world, but composers who work within them often lose themselves, as well as their relationship to music. Yet, these are the people being commissioned to write works for prestigious performances. Notice that Tavener, Part and Gorecki only have small 'visiting' tutor roles at academic establishments. But, of course, I'm naive. I believe that music has the power to transform and heal and, through it, we reach the deeper layers of the unconsious. We can touch the threshold of the divine. But, universities need research material and Compositon is one of those 'research' subjects. This is where the funding comes from. Composition (the very thing I believe that is 'inspired' against being 'constructed') is treated as an empirical subject. Then the question arises, 'ah, but what do you mean by inspiration, if you say we must learn about techniques?' Of course, one has to learn Fugue, Canon, Species Counterpoint, Orchestration and many of the other skills one requires. You cannot make a Composer. One might ask: 'But wasn't music part of the Medieval Quadrivium?' In other words, wasn't it a science? Yes, but music was seen as being part of the working of the divinity at a time when spirit and matter had yet to separated. The world was still an 'inspired' place in which to live: it was shot-through with God. In the Postmodern (or the neo-Romantic whichever one subscribes to - one might argue that the new Romanticism is all part and parcel of the Pomo package anyway) we have a chance for this to be restored...or do we, if what I've said is true? I believe we do, but it's doubtful it is to be found in the University. But, who knows?

Otherwise continued to listen to Mostly Autumn. Their album, The Spirit Of Autumn Past, continues to grow on me. Ordered their 3rd album. Then listened to KC's Disciplne: marvellous! Also followed David Sylvian's Dead Bees On A Cake with the words.

E-mails from Peter, Barbara, and IC people, and a phone call from Elizabeth who is away on holiday. Currently reading Aurelia by Gerard de Nerval.

2 08/06/2001 Last evening, continuing into this morning, I am listening to Yes' Tales From Topographic Oceans from 1973. One of the important things about popular music is its nostalgia value: 'you had to be there'. Whatever one subscribes to, aesthetically, is often wrapped-up in one's past. The problem with this album is that I wasn't there at the time. That is, it was one of those albums which passed me by. I remember that it was really slagged-off in the music papers and it does, somehow, seem to illustrate that popular music was becoming divorced more and more from its roots. It also shows that the symphonic popular music, which was reigning supreme at the time, was probably a product of the dying remnants of the hippie counter-culture, and in it lay the seeds of its own downfall. The 'we can change the world' ethos clearly wasn't working. The New York Dolls, Roxy Music and Bowie were probably more representative of the future of popular music which flowered into Punk three years later, and the restoration of the early energies of rock n'roll.

It goes without saying that in TFTO there is an absence of the three minute song type. But, not as much as you'd think! Also gone is the longer piece which covers one side of a vinyl album which, of course, Yes had explored in their previous album, Close To The Edge (1972) in much the same way as King Crimson had done in Lizard (1971). I think it probably goes back to the influence of Sgt. Pepper's. However, there is one thing very clear from this album and that is simply that Yes are strongest playing shorter songs/instrumentals. This is shown in the way that there seems to be something rather inorganic about the album as a whole. As with previous Yes albums there seem to be a lot of ideas which are sown together in block textures. I wonder if this belies the fact that Yes think in shorter song forms and then 'sow' all the ideas together to make longer structures? I haven't studied the album carefully and, clearly, this is an album that requires attention. But I'm not really sure I want to give it my attention! The music lacks the kind of tension I expect from music, but I also think that this may have something to do with the central idea which, in a sense, is the binding thread: 'What happened to this song we knew so well'. Jon Anderson is more interested in leading us into the labyrinth of forgotten knowledge. He writes on the cover: 'The knowledge of God is a search, constant and clear'. He is bringing the Topographic Ocean into our consciousness - the song of gnosis of the collective unconscious.

There are typical Yes fingerprints: a) the layered vocal harmonies reminiscent, to my ears at least, of CS&N or CSN&Y; b) something that was to become a cliche - the backwards and forwards chord shifts a tone apart (at the beginning of The Revealing Science Of God); c) pieced-together musical blocks; d) many-repeated single pitches in the keyboards/huge mellotron moments; e) rapid/staggered guitar passages country-like in their execution. However, it's the inorganic nature of the music I find rather a problem which indicates structure as opposed to form. Because something either gets louder growing into a climax or grows by accumulative means or, even, repeats doesn't necessarily indicate musical FORM. The final movement demonstrates the point I'm trying to make: I'm not absolutely sure that Yes suit these huge symphonic-like structures.

After saying this, I rather like it but it fails to register at the same level as some other music I listen to. This is probably just personal taste. I'm not an authority on Yes (I'm not really an authority on anyone's music, although I usually get a sense of what is any good by listening rather than by analysing which comes later). I hear the allusions to Indian musical forms at the beginning and the Gamelan-like music at the beginning of the fourth movement which underpin the theme of the lyrics. I do think that Yes desperately missed Bill Bruford's playing on this album and, in places, they sound tired as a musical unit. I've no idea how much pressure they were under from record company or how much 'live' playing they were doing which may have contributed to this. Maybe I'm imagining it? But I do think Time And A Word, The Yes Album, Fragile, Close To The Edge, Relayer and Olias Of Sunhillow are much better albums. I think Close To The Edge is one of the very best albums I've heard.

Now listening to Tool's Lateralus. I think Schism has that 'growth' factor which is lacking in the Yes or, rather, it hasn't: it just 'is'. It doesn't try and be what it's not. Harmonically, it's rather one-dimensional. One thing's for sure: this is angry music!

1 08/05/2001 A day of great activity yesterday. The first part of the day was spent completing the piece for guitar and strings. I have decided to call this 'Between Two Worlds', although nothing is written in stone at this stage. I will send it to Robert and Scott saying they can use it if they want to, transform and expand it in any way or throw it out completely. Today all that is left to do is to add a title page which says something like:

'Between Two Worlds, for Soundscaping electric guitar and string ensemble, was inspired by T.S. Eliot's poem Little Gidding, which deals with the intersection of the timeless with time, achieving redemption through suffering and death as being the necessary prelude to a new beginning. It is dedicated to the memory of my father.'

Yesterday, after completing the piece, we went for a walk in Nicky Nook which has now been re-opened to walkers. Up over the hill, to look on the Bleasdale Fells which we haven't seen since last year, down into the valley and back around to the car. Around three miles of walking. The thing that struck me from this walk, as well as the walk up and down Coniston Old Man last week, was silence! Silence... . We live in an increasingly noisy age, both from traffic, music, talk (both inner and outer from the TV, telephone, hi-fi etc. etc. etc. etc.). If an ancient was to return to the present the thing that he/she would notice, probably more than anything else, would be the noise that surrounds the environment. The high fells give opportunity for moments of intense silence.

Arrived home just in time to listen to new chamber works by Sir John Tavener on the radio, introduced by the composer, followed by his new work for the London Bach Choir: a premiere for the Proms called 'Song Of The Cosmos'. It was interesting to hear Tavener talk about his gradually developing position within contemporary culture. He makes it quite clear that he is working within 'tradition' and that it would be quite incorrect for him to engage with personal fantasy/modernism. His music has strong affinities with the Russian Orthodox church but also with other traditions. The new work demonstrates this even more clearly than previous pieces. He makes the point that he is finding it difficult to work with professional singers because they don't understand the tradition in which he is working. For this new piece he employed a Russian Orthodox priest as the baritone soloist. He made the point that he is finding that he can only work with believers. Song Of The Cosmos is, as the title suggests, a huge work with song at the centre which draws on music of the Orthodox church and Indian rhythms which are played by two drums throughout the loud sections for chorus. These louder sections are connected by the softer songs of the baritone soloist and a solo soprano who represents Sophia. I was VERY surprised when the interviewer asked Tavener what the term esoteric meant as opposed to exoteric.

To Barrie Sillars: the last time I listened to to Yes' Tales From Topographic Oceans I was rather disappointed, but I'll listen again.

(Strange dreams for the past two nights.)

6 08/03/2001 Sue's birthday. Lots of presents!

David Walshaw invited us to Fleetwood folk club last evening. We accepted and went. I'd worked on the guitar and strings piece for most of the day (including an hour when my mother was here, during her afternoon nap), so by the time we were scheduled to be in Fleetwood I was fairly fatigued. The folk club is held in a pub called The Steamer, and there were around thirty people there. I'd been told that it was a fairly low-key gathering, and that all should be expected to perform. I didn't take a musical instrument thinking that I might be let off the hook, but had a curious feeling all day that someone might ask me to perform. They did! I borrowed David's Yamaha acoustic guitar, and performed Nick Drake's 'From The Morning'. This really was a case of exposing myself to public ridicule. I was introduced as a composer of music for soundtracks. The evening was very pleasant and a lot of fun. Around 60% of the performers were acoustic guitarists/vocalists while others played accordians. There was one chap who played accordian and harmonica at the same time: a kind of Rick Wakeman of the accordian world. It's good to see people enjoying music, and keeping the folk tradition alive.

Today it's raining, windy and the first hints that autumn might be just around the corner. The guitar and strings piece continues today, and yesterday it continued to change. Read on the DGM website yesterday that; 'Effective action begins when we cease to concern ourselves with being effective'.

(Later: the piece continues to transform. The idea of 'Thanatos' seems to have pushed itself into the foreground. This isn't too strange as thoughts of my father have been important just recently. Later still: 'resurrection' is now becoming an important idea in the piece, as the ascending spans intensify with each subsequent repetition).

5 08/02/2001 The weather has turned. It's grey, greatly cooler and looks like rain. In a while I drive down the coast to collect my mother who is coming for lunch.

Yesterday, managed a great deal of work on the developing piece for guitar and strings. It's like a great big cosmic wheel: a minor pentatonic scale, on A, keeps going around at various speeds in all the parts, except for an Ab which keeps upsetting the proceedings. Gradually the whole piece shifts into Ab and then the guitar adds more and more pitches towards the climax. During the coda the A minor pentatonic is re-established. Here the players improvise on given pitches supplied in time-boxes. The title 'Uroboros' keeps pressing itself on me. A little more this morning.

Went to Lancaster yesterday and bought Sue her birthday presents for tomorrow. Also managed to get a copy of Jon Anderson's 'Olias Of Sunhillow' which is this morning's Diary accompaniment. I thought I had an old vinyl copy of this, but couldn't locate it. I also listened to this last evening, and wondered if it had perhaps been influenced by the McDonald and Giles album, or rather Birdman had influenced the title piece of J.A.'s album, perhaps not musically but in terms of content. I quite like it, but have never quite known exactly what to make of Yes. I like Time And A Word, The Yes Album, Fragile, Close To The Edge, Relayer, bits of Going For The One and felt that The Ladder was a return to form. 90125 is interesting in that it demonstrates the huge shift in musical thinking in the 1980's and how 'prog' bands were to survive during the New Wave. I seem to remember that just prior to the '...Sunhillow' album that the other members of Yes had all gone off to make solo albums.

4 08/01/2001 The first day of August and it looks like being incredibly warm. Not a cloud in the sky. Currently on with the guitar and strings piece. Yesterday we went to Coniston in southern Lakeland. The goal was Coniston Old Man, the big mountain that overlooks the village. It is 2633', and we (Sue, Christopher and myself) ascended via Levers Water. We had a look around Coppermines Valley which was once an area of industrial activity, but all that remains are a few ruined huts and several huge slag heaps. Copper was mined, as the name of the valley suggests, and exported worldwide. Yesterday was extremely warm, and we decided not only to ascend via Levers Water, the large natural lake at the top of the valley which was artificially damned in the 19th century, but also to walk the ridge via Levers Hause. This was hard-going. The climbing up to the hause, to reach the ridge, was tough: loose scree and extremely fatiguing. However, after puffing our way up the side of the hill the views opened out. When you're on the summits it's difficult to describe the feeling/terrain: very bright sunlight, with quite stony white paths with grass either side giving way to almost sheer drops either side, the wide vista of the hills around (Scafells, Helvellyn, Skiddaw, Blencathra, Ill bell range, Fairfield, Wetherlam etc. etc. etc.) and the sea to the west reflecting the sunlight in nothing short of miraculous. We eventually reached the summit of Coniston Old man at around 17-30 - teatime - which is a good time because, then, the light is quite dazzling. (The artist Cecil Collins could only work at teatime, which he called 'blessed time'). Here we had a good and well-earned rest. I avoided chocolate again, and ate fruit all day. No migraine! We descended via Walnascar Road, as the return journey through Coppermines was now out-of-bounds (due to F&M). Arrived back at the car at 19-30, totally shattered more so because I'd decided to race Christopher along the Walnascar bit of the journey. When I got into bed last night my body wouldn't move, and I awoke this morning in exactly the same position as I'd gone to sleep in. Today, on with the piece which has been fuelled by more ideas which came to me on the walk. Good news is that all the paths, in southern Lakeland at least, are open from today.

(The last time we ascended Coniston Old man was on 4-ix-99 just after this Diary began).