On television

More than a year ago I was asked to collaborate on a television programme about sea level change and Wales. It had been an interesting morning! But then, of course, it ends up in the editing studio, and you never know when it will actually be broadcast. If you are interviewed for the news the turnaround time is quick, of course, but this wasn't. But they hadn't forgotten about me. I got an email to tell me this week, it will actually be broadcast! I was glad they had thought of me. I won't watch, of course, given that I don't have a TV licence, but I hope other people will see it and hopefully enjoy it. Did I make sense at the time? I hope so!

Having a sustainability survey done on my house

In January, I attended a sustainability event, during which there was a presentation by an initiative on making houses more sustainable. You could get a state-sponsored survey on your house, which would result in a detailed report on how you could improve sustainability and how much that would cost. That sounded good! So not long after the event I emailed the organisation to officially declare my interest. I got a message to thank me for my message and that they would get back to me. That took a while though!

When they did get back to me we quickly sorted out an appointment. And two men showed up: Raman, who I had met at the sustainability events before, and an additional man, Dewi. And we first sat down to talk through some things. Raman filled out an extensive form. I had also sent him energy and water bills beforehand.

When we were done with that, Raman started measuring up the entire house. Measured sizes, noted windows, measured moisture content of the walls, took notes of heating, measured airflow of fans, and whatnot. He looked both inside and outside of the house, and even had a look in the loft. It took a fair while!

Raman’s door gap meter

In the meantime I had asked Dewi if he spoke Welsh, and he did, so I basically took the opportunity to have a bit of a chat in that language. That was nice! But in the meantime I was starting to get a bit nervous. At some point I had to go to work, and this was looking like it would take longer than planned. But in the end, Raman declared his information-gathering finished. And the next stage was that he would go to his office and prepare a report. So we said our goodbyes. 

After they had left I sent him a floor plan of the house which might help him; he had taken his own measurements, but it can be nice to cross-check that with an original source. And later I got an additional request for some information on my solar panels and some other last loose ends.

Now I have to wait several weeks for the report to arrive. I am curious to see what it will say! I assume that they will recommend more insulation in the loft, and I should indeed to make that happen. Additionally, I think they would recommend that I put more insulation between the old(er) part of the house and the extensions. Between the bedroom and the conservatory there is an old thin door and some single glass, and the same holds for between the kitchen and the kitchen extension. That probably leaks quite a lot of heat in winter. Not sure what else they will say! Which is good; if they would only suggest things I could've thought of myself it wouldn't be a good use of time and money.

I will report back when the report is in. I hope a lot of it is implementable without too much hassle!

Swift boxes responsibility

There is an array of swift boxes fixed to the building where my office is. It's nice to hear them screaming around, and see them pop into and out of the boxes. But these boxes also attract a lot of swift researchers (swifties?). A while ago there was a cherry picker in front of the building, as people were installing a camera in one of the boxes. And later there was lots of walking around in my corridor as a microphone was also installed in one of them. They were doing that through the window, and the cable went through that same window to power the equipment.

A while ago I was coming out of the building to get to my bike to go home, and there were lots of swift people there. And it turned out that they had a new trick; they had fixed Velcro to all the boxes, with the idea of being able to attach a battery powered microphone pack to them. Most of them are not positioned so that you can easily run a cable to them. And they had put one such pack up.

I had a chat with them. It’s interesting to see what they could do with audio! The idea is that you can hear the parent come in with food, and that you can check what the time intervals are between these visits. What determines their length? Short ones mean it’s relatively easy to get a full load of food. If the periods get longer, something is amiss. It would be interesting to find patterns in this.

We also discussed the sparrows that seemed to very proudly take over these boxes in the winter, when the swifts are away. The swift people told me that indeed they often managed to get one brood in before the swifts return! I can imagine why they sometimes triumphantly stick their little sparrow heads out of the swift boxes and cheep away to tell everyone what they’re up to. 

Bold sparrow declaring themselves a squatter

When they had my ear anyway, the swift people asked if I would check every morning if the battery-powered microphone pack was still in position, and report back. So I did! 

I just reported all was well for two days. On the third day I had to report it seemed to be tilting. And the week after it was at a really precarious angle. 

Left: June 26 (the 3rd day); right; July 3

How will this saga continue? Will the swift people appear on time to save their microphone pack? Will they have to buy better Velcro? Will they indeed manage to find out under what circumstances it is easy for the swifts to find food without too much effort? Time will tell!

Learning PSA the modern way

I had done particle size analysis (PSA) for my PhD, but nothing really since. The laser particle size we had was quite old then, and I did my work in the early noughties. I figured a lot would have changed since then! But I knew that Ocean Sciences had bought a new machine, and there was an offer for being trained up to use it. I took that offer. It is a very useful skill to have! Foraminifera often care about grain size, and given that they are nowadays increasingly used as environmental indicators, and pollution really cares about grain size, it has only become more important. And this machine can even give you the shape of your particles. Jaco and I had been wondering if it can tell the difference between  foraminifera and sand, or even between planktonic and benthic foraminifera! If it can, that could save a lot of time in some projects…

We spent the morning being told and shown by an employee of the manufacturer how it works. It looks like it is fairly straightforward. Only really doing some measurements will show if that is true or not. I'm sure I can use this in some Masters projects! A good thing to get out of the way during the relatively quiet time in summer…

Guided walk about On Nos Olau Lleuad

I looked at the weather forecast, changed into quick-dry trousers, and set off to the starting point of the guided walk about celebrated Welsh book Un Nos Olau Leuad. We would gather rather high up in the village, and I assumed we would walk down from there. The evening would end in a pub near me. 

It was only raining mildly. I figured that I was the first one! You could either go straight to the beginning, or hitch a ride with the local electrical van, and I had chosen to walk. I figured the van would first wait for stragglers, and be a bit later. And soon another slightly bedraggled lady ended up at the same address. I approached her asking if she was there for the same purpose, and she was! And then more appeared. Two of them I recognised from an earlier guided walk; that had been archaeology and ecology in the Carneddau. We had a nice chat.

After a while we decided to check the junction nearby, and we found the van and everybody belonging with it. They hadn't bothered to look around the corner to the actual address where they had told us to meet. But now we were complete, and it could start. 

The first thing the guide, Ieuan Wyn, did was if a bit of an introduction. He reminded people of when the book was written and published, and what the circumstances were of the author. He also touched on the form of the narrative; it’s childhood memories from an adult man. Even though that is a bit weird; when you read the book, it really has a childlike perspective, where things that happen are taken as given, and not reflected on. Adults looking back tend to do that differently, but hey ho. 

He then proceeded to mention a lot of locations that were mentioned in the book, and explained what their real names were. Quite a lot of them are slightly altered, and some I thought I recognised, but wasn't sure of. Braich-> Braichmelyn, Pont Stabla -> Pont Twr (the most plausible bridge), etc. Some locations I really couldn't place, like an auntie’s house which turned out to be in Deiniolen, and the house where the protagonist lives. And that was the house where we had gathered. 

The street and house where both author and protagonist lived

Ieuan Wyn explain the various locations where the author had lived, which were all quite nearby. And took us to the house that is the location of a nasty eviction at the very start of the book. But then the rain was hammering down! It was decided that we will try to do some of the talking inside the bus. We could still see the locations from the inside. And after we had seen these locations higher up in the village, we went to the church. The protagonist is a churchgoer, not a chapel goer. I had never been in there! It had been built by Penrhyn Estate (of course) and there are several scenes that are set inside it. It was nice to see the details all matching up.

To the church 

Inside

After church we went to the little parking space next to my house, as that plays a role as well. Not as a parking lot, obviously. But although there were probably about 20 pubs in the town at the time where the novel is set, there is only mention of one (now closed), and that his back entrance where is now the parking lot. So some of the scenes were really set nearby! And the guide also spoke a bit about the two various locations where there had been holding cells; I blogged about the older ones earlier, and now I also know where the newer ones, in use at the time of the book, are. I think had actually found out before, but forgotten again. 

After that we went to the pub. I was glad! I was hoping for something hot. The communications about this event had been that a light meal would be served. Coming in we noticed it wasn't hot at all, but at least we could get a hot cup of tea or coffee with it. That helped!

I chatted a bit more with some of the other participants, but I did not stay long. And even then it was after nine when I left. And the next day was going to be a long one. But I was glad I had gone. It really lives more in your head if you know where all these scenes are set! So that was an evening well spent. And I was also glad I had managed to read almost the entire book beforehand. The guide read out scenes that related to the locations where we were, and I recognised all of them from recently having read them. Even finishing the book would not have given me more relevant locations. So both the re-reading and the walk were a success! I am now a better informed reader and Bethesda resident…

Visit by my dad

My dad is a train nut. And he sometimes goes on holiday with other train nuts, to look at trains. And this summer, he would visit Liverpool in that context. And that’s not far from Wales! So he figured he might drop by. And we made it happen. 

Organising the logistics was not straightforward, but we had sorted it out the previous time I was in the Netherlands. So on the day I knew which train I had to pick him up from. I thought. I was a bit early and decided to go to the platform. And who was there? My dad! He had decided to take an earlier train, and, being 86, he hadn’t thought it was the obvious thing to do to send me a message to let me know. 

We got home and had lunch. In the garden! He had been looking forward a lot to sitting in the garden. But after lunch he thought it was a bit chilly. When we had a drink later on we did it in the conservatory. At least you can see the garden from there. 

The cat had my dad wrapped around her paw as well; she often held on to the comfy chair

We also went the cheese shop between lunch and drinks. It would be nice to be able to offer him local cheese. And for my once indefatigable dad, that was enough of a walk! He feels his age. And I went for a run; I wanted to keep that routine up. I want to feel my age as little as possible.

The Friday would have good gardening weather, but we seemed to get distracted. My dad, who is an unstoppable DIY-er, spotted that the toilet seat wobbles, and wanted to do something about it. Together we managed. 

I also hauled him up to a local event of which I had slightly misinterpreted the content. Oh well! He now knows of a community initiative. We didn’t stay long and it was only 200m away, so not much was lost. And he did see a chance to cut the grass (his offer) while I went for a run. It was sweet that the neighbour’s dog tried his bark-for-cuddles routine on him and it worked! 

The Saturday was supposed to be rainy, but in practice it wasn’t bad at all. We got some good work done in the garden! And we mucked out the gutter of the conservatory. And when I say ‘we’ I mean my dad. 

Some good ladder skills at 86

We also sat down with his phone! I knew he would get himself a smartphone, because I had heard him ask my sister if she could advise him on that. So now he had one, but he didn’t know how it worked. And it was a Samsung (I don’t like them!) so I wasn’t very familiar with it either, but a combination of trial and error and googling on my iPhone got us far. By the evening he was actively texting relatives and acquaintances! A keen student. And if he took long over composing a text I used the opportunity to make progress in my book I wanted to finish that weekend. 

We also properly installed the new cat flap. After the cat demolished the old one, I had only managed to half install the new one. If I fully installed it the flap wouldn’t move freely in the frame. And it was mysterious why! But we sorted it. 

We also of course spent plenty of time having tea or wine or suchlike and chewing the fat; unfortunately, rarely in the garden. And with all that, the last evening passed.

The next morning was not very relaxed; when I got up I checked my dad’s trains. His Eurostar seemed to be running as normal, but his direct train to London was cancelled due to personnel shortages. (Last time I travelled, it had been floods.) So he had to take an earlier, indirect one. But we found out on time. And soon I waved his train goodbye. 

There he goes

Re-reading Un Nos Olau Leuad

Before I had the faintest idea I would ever live in Bethesda I had read this book, which is by many considered to be the best book written in Welsh ever, and it’s both set in the town, and written by a man who was from there. I didn't really recognise any of the places mentioned in the book. It is cleared at a lot of places are not referred to as modern inhabitants do. Back in the early 20th century, the A5 was not known as the A5, for instance! 

Moving to Bethesda I became more curious where everything would have taken place, but I didn't really act on that curiosity. Until I saw advertised a guided walk in the area in the theme of the book. It would both involve locations that had been important in the life of the writer, and locations that feature in the book. That sounded enlightening! I signed up.

That meant that now I needed to really quickly reread the book. I wanted to have it fresh in my memory when I would join the tour!