Circle of Fifths

(From http://www.neverendingbooks.org/)

I do not pretend to understand this drawing, other than it shows the various groups that Marcus du Sautoy was talking about. It is here to mark finishing the symmetry book and finding myself in that rare state that usually only applies to novels of a certain type, in that I was racing to the end and yet wanting it not finish.

However a suitable replacement of equal magic has been found in the shape of a recommendation by Alice Roberts from the Tuesday edition of A Good Read (which by the way, started broadcasting in the middle - V. Poor I thought). Her chosen book was Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees by Roger Deakin - a plotless collection of pure observations, loosely connected by trees but mostly a celebration of the general nature of nature. It has loose echoes of Cider with Rosie and yet more of many other personal collections of natural history. It is very like an extended version of the Country Diary in the Guardian. Again I am drawn in to it at any spare moment. To come, an imminent celebration has brought us a trawl of books which should keep us occupied for some time, including one by the aforementioned Doctor Doctor Alice, which she has written and illustrated. I can only say stuff that Paxman!

Daughter will be most happy with this picture. I'm having slight problems with the bow tie - doesn't seem to fit my image of Matt Smith but as we have all been uncomfortable with many of the leaked details throughout the new runs of Doctor Who, and then been quite happy, I am sure that it will be carried off with ease. We were watching the new series of Coast last week in which Neil Oliver visited one of the Thames sea forts and I happened to mention that it looked like a good place to set a Doctor Who story. This was overheard through two closed doors and up the stairs leading to a speedy descent of firstborn to enquire about it. This is spooky in itself and suggests some sort of mental link with the Tardis. If only I believed in such things. All of which reminds me of the newly-ignited debate over the reality of the moon landings. I suspected that some newer high-definition pictures of the landing sites would be released this week - it is unfortunate that they are all provided by NASA rather than an independent organization. Never mind - the Chinese will land next to one of the sites pretty soon and it will all be over. The world is full of kooks.