Het duister dat ons scheidt

I was still reading through my pile in the living room, with books people had lent me or given me. I had reached a Dutch novel by Renate Dorrestein: het duister dat ons scheidt (the dark that divides us), which my sister had given me. I had been reading two books at the same time, as I thought the other one was a bit too chewy for a bedtime reading. And this was fiction.

Warning: spoiler alerts.

I didn't know what to expect. It just started with a new housing project by an old small village. (Well actually, there is one scene before that, but I'll skip over that for now.) It is the late 70s or early 80s, and the new housing estate is full of young couples that all have children at roughly the same time. Of this part of the book, the protagonist is the collective voice of all these children. It follows them for six years. All children except one: Loes, who lives in the old part of the village, and who the children look up to.

I quite liked this part! You get the sense of the pioneer mentality, and the sense of a new slate for all these people that moved to a new neighbourhood, all at the same time. And then the novelty wearing off. And the children not quite understanding what the adults are doing and why. And then the suburban standards in the housing project contrasted with the more unconventional household Loes is growing up in. That's enough of a book for me! But then things got spectacular.

The father of one of the children gets murdered, and Loes’ mother ends up in jail for it, although in the book there are hints that she just took the blame, and that it was Loes who actually did it, although she is only six years old. She stays where she is; her mother was living with two men who are assumed to be tenants, but who actually are Loes’ mother’s partners (yes both of them), and therefore probably also Loes’ father (just one of them, obviously, though). The men are barely domestic gods, but they make it work somehow.

All the children in the village turn against Loes with her murderous mother. And six years of relentless bullying starts. That was hard to read! She just puts up with it.

At the end of the six years, Loes’ mother returns; probably released early for good behaviour. And then the family dynamic turns a bit strange. The newfound equilibrium is broken, the mother has changed, and things can never get back to what it was. Loes’ mother also finds out her daughter is being bullied, and wants to put an end to it. Unfortunately, she only ends up being bullied alongside her daughter. And she decides they have to leave. Leave to somewhere entirely different. And they pick the Scottish island of Lewis. And entirely different it is.

Loes has unlearned to socialise with other kids, but she finds solace in the baby next door. Overtime, though, she does end up in the community of local children. In the beginning she just keeps her head down. It doesn't entirely work, and there is a bit of a vision of even worse abuse than what she had been trying to escape. But it doesn't come to pass! The kids here are less cruel. Sometimes one gets ostracised, but that never seems to last very long.

In spite of the new environment, harmony never really returns to the family, and at some point, the mother just leaves. It is suggested later that she wants acknowledgement for her sacrifice, but never gets that to the degree she would like. And then just gives up on the situation. And again the remaining three make it work somehow.

In the last part of the book, Loes is 18, and is about to go to Amsterdam, to get a qualification in childcare. She gets there without problems, but her past is never far behind, of course. And she also finds out that her mother now has a job in the jail where she used to be imprisoned. And she decides to go and meet her. And they have a discussion about everything that has happened. Only then do both Loes and the reader get the final jigsaw pieces. The reader finds out that it was the two men who committed the murder, with Loes witnessing. Loes find out what the reader has known for a long time; her mother had had a heated affair with the murdered man, way before he moved into the housing estate. He may very well have been her father.

This makes Loes think a lot, obviously. She realises that in a way, she always let the other kids just bully her because she felt guilty for letting her mother take the blame for the murder. If you are guilty, you deserve punishment, right? And she thought the murder was mainly to protect her. Now she realises it might have been ordinary revenge on a love rival. Her mother may not have sacrificed herself for her daughter, but for her partners! And on the other hand; these partners might have stayed around only for her; not for her adulterous mother. A lot of her perspectives are abruptly changed.

The book ends there. The reader doesn't find out if Loes finds her feet in Amsterdam. And is basically left to ponder things for themselves.

Did I enjoy it? Yes and no! It was a very gripping book, but as I mentioned; the bullying scenes are difficult, even though most of them are never specified but largely hinted at. There is some glimpse of redemption at some point, though, but I figured the summary would be a bit long if I included that. 

I tend to like my books with less action, but this one kept me thinking about it for quite a while afterwards. And that is a success! So altogether I would say this was a good choice. Not all good choices have to be easy…

Bank Holiday pizza

There was something going on at the local cheese maker and seller: a pizza van! That was really something we needed to check out. And probably support. Susan had suggested the bank holiday Monday, and that worked for me. I didn’t expect Martin to be up for it; he is very busy with a research proposal. But on the day he came out of the woodwork! 

I thought we should have a drink with the pizza. I packed a flask of water (of course) and some beers, both with and without alcohol. And I noticed I had a bottle of Prosecco. That might actually be quite suitable! And I rolled some shot glasses into a dishcloth (they are less fragile than wine glasses) to go with it. And then I was ready to get onto my bike. 

The van has some garden chairs out. Luxurious enough for me! The others came on foot. And they were up for the Prosecco.

Opening the wine; GIF by Sue and Dean

The pizza van

Elegant Prosecco ladies

The pizzas were good! And Susan had brought dessert for Martin and me. It was all quite nice! I sure think we have to go back and support them a bit more…

Climate festival moss walk

I didn’t know how many people would be attracted to a moss walk at a local climate festival. But the answer was: a lot! Luckily, the organisers had a lot of hand lenses to hand out. And we started out right by the community centre. Emily, who was leading this, had gathered some moss, and handed it out. She made sure that everyone knew how to use a hand lens, and asked some questions that made us really look at the moss we were holding. And then we were ready to venture into the wider world.

Soon a veritable crowd walked over the bicycle path towards the more shaded parts thereof. Under the trees, Emily found another species, and had us all look at it. And she found a beautiful thallose liverwort on a tree.

The moss crowd

A beautiful moss

The thallose liverwort 

A bit further on there was a small stream by the path, and that led to other species growing there. And then there was another shaded part that led towards the old railway tunnel. I was just aiming my hand lens at everything mossy or liverworty I could find. And a few lichens. These are cool too! At some point Alys, the other lady who lead this, said “this is what you get on a moss walk; lots of people stuck to a wall” and it was true. But we all had a whale of a time stuck to that wall!

Under an old railway bridge 

Liverwort on the left, moss on the right 

The wall that had a lot to offer

At the end Emily asked us what we had remembered. Not many species names, to be honest. But that was okay! We had all enjoyed ourselves. And now it was time to get back to the community centre. The next thing on the agenda was my talk!

2024 Climate Festival

The 2024 climate festival was approaching rapidly! And Chris, the local spider in the web, seemed to have the organisation formally under control. My task now was only to prepare a presentation. And there were two of us presenting, so the idea was as well to make sure the two talks combined well.

We had good intentions! We had a phone call. And I said I would send her my slides from last year, and then she would send me a draft of what she would present. And then we could tweak according to need. But life got in the way, and I had to finalise my slides in the very bank holiday weekend of the festival, without having seen what my co-presenter had in mind. But at least I knew she was a biologist with an interest in extinctions.

Preparing the slides

The festival started at 11. I decided to show up shortly afterwards. I wasn't talking until 1 pm, but there was a moss walk at 11:30. I like moss! So I wanted to join.

When I got there it was already very busy. Such a good sight! And the moss walk was very popular as well; there was a veritable herd of us heading up the bicycle path, with hand lenses around our necks. It was run by the same ladies who had been talking about moss at the event in Penrhyndeudraeth. It was great fun! I will dedicate a separate blog post to that.

Busy already! Pic by Gwyrddni

The stands outside the community centre 

When we got back it was almost time for me to present. And there was a good crowd in the side room where that would take place! Some familiar faces from last year, but also quite some additional ones. And I was really glad that when I spoke, they would just interrupt me for questions. It got very lively! I really enjoyed it. And there also was discussion afterwards.

My talk; pic by Gwyrddni

Then the other lady, Alison, spoke. What she said was also very interesting. Her main message wasn't actually about extinctions. What actually argued is that we know enough to know what to do to prevent them. And that is where the gains can be made. Of course you can do more research on extinction; different locations, different species, new extensions due to changing circumstance. But what will that get you? More knowledge, and nothing happening. She argues scientists should increasingly get out of science and focus their energy on making those with the power to actually change things do so. I think she has a point!

Her talk and the following discussion overran a bit. The next thing on the timetable was a climate quiz, but a lot of people had run out of steam by this time. I knew the lady who had organised it, so I wanted to participate. We all took a little bit of time out in the fresh air, where I found my fellow bike enthusiast Pete. And then we went back into the admittedly stuffy room for the quiz. There were only three participants! But we had fun. And I won a pencil.

By then the whole event had come to an end. We helped Chris put the room back to the state he had found it in. And then I went home.

We will still have Chris for another year with another festival. And after that his funding will run out. He hopes that by then, we will be able to do it without him. But we are all people with busy jobs! I find it really helps that he just regularly calls meetings. If you wait for us to do that, we wait until we have time for that sort of thing, and that never happens. Oh well. We have another year to think about this and see how we can solve this. We might just sit together at the next climate festival, and put dates in the diary for a whole year worth of meetings. And then make it happen with volunteers only. That would be ideal!

Another day training in CRTT

After the not entirely successful communications training in CRTT, we were coming back to do a full scenario there. I knew it would involve pretend casualties! So I expected a long day.

It was also a sunny bank holiday weekend, so we expected it to be busy. So all controllers (both established and aspiring) were summoned to the car park by 8:30. That was just early enough! We had the very last regular parking spaces. After that, it became cowboy business. The rest of the team was expected to park further down the hill, where it is a lot quieter.

As controllers we got the briefing. Dewi had made up a message from the police, regarding two people overdue. We discussed what we should do. After a while he threw in another piece of information: the police had received a phone call from one of the two, who had made it out safely, but said his mate had fallen down a slope and was injured. That meant full team call-out! Unfortunately it was me who said it, some three times, and it wasn't heard. I suppose it was another instance of words only being heard when a man speaks them. Annoying. But we had an imaginary casualty on our hands. We needed to get moving! And Ed was nominated to be the casualty.

We got into our caving gear, and went to where all the team kit was. We always have a lot to carry! And this time, there was no Landrover to hitch a ride from. By now, the rest of the team also arrived. And we had decided how we would organise ourselves. A small team with medical expertise would rush in first. Soon after, a rigging team would follow. It wouldn’t be a simple stretcher carry out! And then the rest, with cave-links, for surface-to-casualty communications (and vice versa) .

We loaded up and started walking. It was very hot! And I was dressed for a draughty mine. It was a bit uncomfortable, but hey ho. 

When we got to the entrance, things started according to plan. The medical team went in, closely followed by a rigging team, and then the tailgaters. We had to wait for the last people to come up with the cave-links. And I had been appointed underground control, so I needed to remain close to our line of communication.

At the entrance

At the entrance 

When I walked in I noticed my lamp was temperamental. Oh dear! Because we had had to carry so much, I had hung my helmet from my harness. Bad idea! That meant it was scraping along my kit at every step, and that had clearly affected a contact. Without a light, you're not worth much underground! I was glad I had a spare light on my helmet, and with a bit of faffing I did manage to make it work. I continued.

When we had to clamber over collapses or scree slopes, I would often rub my helmet against my rather high bag. And that would make my light either go out, or to the lowest setting. Annoying! But still manageable.

After a while we heard voices. We first game across a rigging team. And not much further on we came to the scene of the accident. There was rigging going on there as well. I had look at what the situation was. Everything seems to be under control! So I set up a cave-link with Paul, and we sent a message to the surface. And soon we got one back. Communications established! That was good. But there was something weird. The messages we received did not really address what we had said. Were they getting our messages? And then it fell silent. Something was wrong! But the other teams were making good progress, and the casualty was about to be brought up the slope. And that meant we should establish a new position for our system. So we packed the whole thing up and moved to beyond next set of obstacles. That also meant we were in daylight. The mine system there reaches the surface in various places. Or in other words, there are huge holes in the ceiling. We set up the system again, but again without success. Fortunately, though, one of those who had stayed at the surface, Dave, appeared at the top of the hole, and could shout down to us. Paul even managed to get radio contact with him. That makes talking a lot easier! It turned out that they were indeed not getting our messages via cave-link, so basically shouting through the ceiling was now our best bet with regards to communicating to the surface.

It was such a pity we had lost an excellent opportunity to practice with the cave links in this system! It is clear we could have greatly benefited from it. Now the main priority was getting our casualty out. If your main priority is communications, you just sort this sort of issue out. And then we had the expert present!

With nothing to do regarding comms, we just went back to help managing the stretcher carry. I didn't have much to do with regards to underground control! All the action took place in a rather small space, and everyone had a clear task and just got on with it. 

The big challenge was that normally you just walk through a tunnel from chamber to chamber, but one of these tunnels had been blocked by a collapse. So the only way to get out was basically to clamber over the collapsed to a higher level, and then back down again on the other side of the collapse. That is quite doable as a person, but very difficult as a team carrying a stretcher. And the riggers had come up with a clever plan to circumvent this! Just haul the stretcher vertically up to the next level, and then traverse most of the chamber with all the rubble in suspended from a rope. And they made it happen.

The stretcher traversing the rope. Pic by NWCRO

While that was going on I noticed Dave, who later admitted he was getting a bit self-conscious about being observed by suspecting walkers to inexplicably be shouting down huge holes in the ground, had found the hole through which she could shout to us at this location. I couldn't really hear what he said, so I had to clamber a lot closer to him. He said the surface team hoped we would abort mission. It was getting late! And I thought we should do that after the stretcher had traversed this chamber on the rope. It would be a pity to not use it now! And I went back to the others to report this.

The riggers had actually also rigged one further pitch, to lower the stretcher down, over the rubble, to floor level. We decided to use that pitch as well, given that it was there, but then abort mission. The casualty could just have a miraculous recovery and walk the rest. That would be a lot quicker! And we made it happen.

Coming down to floor level. Pic by NWCRO 

When he got out and stretched his legs again we quickly removed all the pitches, and put all the kit associated with the stretcher back into the bags. And then we could head back! And that was mainly just one scree slope, one collapse, one incline, and then a very long tunnel before we were out in the sunshine again. Mission accomplished! And we had a little debrief in the sun. But then we went back down.

I figured it had been very useful. As I keep mentioning; if we have a callout, it is generally in this system. And this was the first time I had been on a practice where we had actually tried to get a casualty out. And we normally only encounter people who are in good health, but either don't have the equipment to come out, or can't find the exit. They are quite easy to extract! But it is likely that one day our luck will run out, and we will actually have to get an injured person out. And now we have practised!

I am afraid I have to end this post with the confession that that very night, at 1:30, we actually had a call-out; people lost in CRTT. But I slept straight through the alarm! And it turned out I hadn't been the only one. Friends suggested this might have something to do with the iPhone bug that had been on the news. I don't know! But I felt guilty for not responding. And I take my hat off to the people who responded, especially those that had already spent their entire day in this very same system! Luckily, for the actual call-out, no stretchers were needed!

Marking time, so also: academic integrity time

Pretty much all the teaching is now over! But that also means that there is a lot of marking work to do. The exams haven't been yet, but there is a lot of coursework to mark. Especially essays and dissertations. And these can be slow to mark!

With much marking comes much work on academic integrity. I had been getting some piecemeal cases, but the big job so far has been the second year students and their essays. Every single student in that cohort is on that module, and it is a big cohort at that. And it is marked by lots of different members of academic staff. And the problem with that is that I am reluctant to let the situation happen that in a module like that, academic integrity monitoring becomes some sort of lottery. In other words; that it just depends on who has marked your work whether you will or will not be pulled up for poor academic practice. I know some of my colleagues have never flagged a case of academic poor practice with me. Some people are very diligent. And the solution to such unequal treatment unfortunately is that I look at all of the scripts myself.

We always get quite some essays about turtles. Pic by Roberto Costa Pinto

It was a lot of work to evaluate all potential cases! And save the documents in the suitable folder. And then write an email to all of them. And write a documentation form for all of them. And put the emails and the documentation on their university webpage. And keep track of all of that. If it's just one or two students in a module that is quickly done. If you have 200 students, and you have to contact more than 10 of them, it becomes time consuming.

I will also have to do the dissertations! Traditionally, these have lower percentages of students whose work I need to check. And it is a smaller cohort as well. Let’s hope that like last year, it isn’t a big job. 

A good thing about all this work is that I suggest to every student that they make an appointment with me. A fair percentage always takes that up. That means: more time! And the discussions can be difficult. I am, after all, probably telling them that I have reduced their mark because they were using someone else's words instead of their own. But sometimes you have a really constructive discussion with the student in question. And that makes my day! And I always hope I never have to email them again. Not about academic integrity, anyway…

Second Tuesday Evening fell race: Nant Peris

After my first Tuesday evening fell race, I was eager for more. The week after, the race would be in Nant Peris, which is very beautiful. And not very far away. Ideal? Not quite! It was a very wet day, and that makes fell racing extra challenging. I'm already scared of slipping and injuring myself when it is dry! I knew my downhill was going to be very slow. But I still wanted to race.

When I arrived I tried to pay for the entire series, but the organisation did not want to accept that. This was already the fourth race. So I just paid for this episode. And then I had a little recce. Crikey was it muddy. This was going to get interesting!

Arriving at the start

The race didn't immediately start steep, but because of the soggy ground it was a challenge anyway. And I think there normally is a path lower down on the route, but that evening it was a stream. I wasn't going very fast! And soon it was so steep no one was going fast. There was practically no running going on for most of the uphill. But much, much later than I had expected it, we started to see people coming downhill. And those at the front were obviously hurtling down the slope as if it wasn't out have them sprain their knees and break their ankles!

It gets steep

I reached the top, took two pictures, and then carefully started to make my way down. It was more important to me to come down in one recognisable shape than to be fast. So I was overtaken left, right and centre.

Looking back at the top

Summit selfie

At some point I was overtaken by a lady who then just sat down and slid some distance down the slope on her bum. That is also a way of doing it! I did consider it. But I stayed on my feet.

And down

I had heard a lot of cheering earlier on, but by the time I finally approached the finish it was quite quiet. I found out that exactly like the previous time, I had come in as the 75th runner, but the previous time the weather was gorgeous and there were a heck of a lot more of them! Under these circumstances I am pretty rubbish. I was starting to look forward to the civilised road race that was only two weeks away. It is less scenic, but you can just concentrate on the running!

The week after that, the race would be a bit further away, and again up a ludicrously steep hill. I've walked that hill a few times, and even for walking I find the downhill too steep. I think I might skip this one! There just wouldn't be any running involved for me…

Matlab, R and AI

I was bringing out my modern, technological side! And some of it went better than other bits. My master student had got her data together, and I ideally wanted her to perform multivariant statistics on it. But the thing is, if I want her to do it, I have to be able to do it myself as well! And I'm not a coding genius in the best of days, and I also hadn't kept it up since the last time I had used it in anger. So I really needed to dig out my knowledge from underneath a thick layer of dust.

I thought I'd start with an MDS plot. I had been processing for all data that way for years. I still had the Matlab scripts. I just had to check if it still worked. Matlab evolves, after all. But it did! I got me a plot.

I then decided that an even better idea would be to perform principal component analysis. My student was thinking about the relationship between pollution and microorganism assemblages. Surely it would be interesting to see how these parameters relate to each other graphically. So I started googling how you do that in Matlab. And I asked Monica, my AI assistant. But I couldn't get these scripts to work.

I then noticed a search result that directed me to R. Maybe that was worth the try? It is more user-friendly than Matlab. I found the page that guides you through the process. So I dug out my RStudio. I had made some tentative starts with that software for reasons of probably having to teach it in Welsh. No I needed much more from it! Would I manage to make it work?

Asking AI, again, didn't really help much. But I found a webpage where it was explained in detail how you can make the software do your PCA. And when I followed that recipe, I got what I needed! I was very proud of myself. Two successful plots with two different types of mathematical software in one day; that is not bad. And I hadn't had to ask anyone for help!

If I can do this, my student can too. I directed her to the same website. And when I had the software open anyway, I made a plot with some arbitrary data. I am not going to give away the results of my student here!

I fully intend to make recipes for doing the other calculations and plots I do in my teaching in R as well. I think it is powerful enough to suit all my needs. In order to actually need Matlab, you need to have rather high demands, and I don't. And R is free, so I will keep having access to it. The university isn't keen on paying for licenses, so using free software relieves you of the risk of the university quitting its subscription.

Altogether a bit of a disappointment AI wasn't of much use here. But extra cool I got what I needed in the end. I hope I can keep this momentum going!

A PCA plot of some example data

Organising the family reunion (badly)

After the last family reunion (which I missed) I was asked to organise the next episode, together with my cousin Femke. Because of my foreign residency, I’ve never been involved in the organisation before. 

It will take place in the city where Femke lives. I suppose that meant that we really relied on her local knowledge, but I could do the communications. Whether someone fires emails from the middle of the Netherlands or from windswept Wales doesn't really matter!

Utrecht: the venue. Pic by Pepijntje

The big decision was done the last time we had a cousin meet-up: the date. We settled on a Sunday in May. And May is nigh! 

Femke and me discussed over WhatsApp. She had plenty of ideas. And then we had to choose. We weren’t as good at that as I would have hoped. I also think it didn’t help we both had very busy times; I had my two applications in spring, and she always has more jobs and courses and children and whatnot than seem to fit in a person’s life. 

We’ll have to get our arses in gear now! But I trust we’ll pull it off in the end. I suppose that’s probably how we live our lives! Uncertain how we will fit everything in, but making it alright on the night…

End of Rosemary

The lady I bought my house from was called Rose. It was short for Rosemary. I figured it wasn’t a coincidence there were several rose and rosemary bushes in the garden. I like rosemary, but I’m not so keen on roses. 

I have not gone on a campaign to get rid of any of the roses or rosemaries. I like keeping a tribute to the previous owner in place. But sometimes something happens that makes me reduce the number of rose-related plants anyway. At some point, the big rosebush in the upper garden keeled over in strong wind, and blocked access to the lower garden. So then I had to remove it. A rosemary by the kitchen was donated. 

This spring, the big rosemary bush that stood close to the rosebush I had to cut back, looked really bad. It might be a very old plant! It was about a cubic meter. Maybe it had come to the end of its lifetime. It looked like it was dying.

A sad rosemary bush

It was already an impractical plant. It was sub-horizontal, so its branches were hanging over a lot of both grass and plant bed. So although I mourned the end of a meaningful plant, I did decide the time had come to remove it.

I first took lots of cuttings. I know it isn't necessarily easy to propagate a rosemary, and I also seem to have decided this in the wrong time of the year, but I had very little to lose. And then it got busy; the same stuff that got in the way of my gate repair. But one day, a few weeks after the cuttings, I got executive and took my saw through its trunk. I needn’t have bothered; the wood was rotten, and I could just pull it out of the ground. The upper garden looks really different now! And I’ll have to tidy up what appeared from underneath it. I’ll find time for that these weeks. 

Goodbye, Rosemary! It was good to have known you!

The cat inspects to new situations with the uprooted Rosemary

Gone altogether

Cuttings

Day out with the Cornish

It had been a year ago since Mike and Daz, my Cornish friends, had come up to Wales. So I could have expected a message saying they were due again. They appeared just when teaching petered out. Good timing!

They were up for either an above ground or underground trip, but they had already done a massive hike, so I figured an underground trip would be more fitting. I didn't have buckets of inspiration, but I did mention which venues I had visited the past year. And one of these was a mine they hadn't been in before. They had been in a few meters, but then turned back. This might have had something to do with the cold water you encounter pretty much immediately. But now they were up for it. And we’d meet up there.

It was great to see them! And we got kitted up. After a while we went in. We first did the lower level. They had never seen a chute like that before! Or a wagon like that. 

Then we went up and checked that level out. And then it was time to head into the deep cold water. And we checked all the way to the end. Nice drippies, nice laddered shafts, nice artefacts. And then we went back out. Time to warm our feet back up! 

Mine level

Ladder going off into oblivion 

Crawling through a partial collapse with black speleothems

Decorative bottle

We changed, had a drink, and then decided to have a look at a nearby mine entrance none of us had seen before. How could this one have escaped me so long? I now know where it is. I might recce it before they come back. And then we went back to their accommodation. By that time I was ravenous! So I was keen to get lunch somewhere. And we settled on a nearby pub. I don't think any of the food touched the sides.

In the pub we made plans for the afternoon. Mike wondered if there was anything interesting to see in some area that boils down to the easternmost part of the Lleyn peninsula. I thought of the hillfort: Tre’r Ceiri. And we decided to go there. But I said I first wanted some tea.

We went back to their accommodation where I found a kettle and a big flask. So I did my thing. And then we could go!

It is a fair drive there. But quite a lot of the road is beautiful, so that was okay. And by the time we got to the layby that functions at the start of the standard walk up to the top, it was about 4:15. A bit late to start a walk! But this one wouldn't be huge.

We started our way up, and quite soon we got to the outer wall. The men were impressed! And it is quite an impressive structure. We had a little wander around, imagining what life would have been like when this place was still inhibited. We were most wondering about the issue of drinking water. But we didn't linger too long. We were back at the car in about an hour. 

Hillfort selfie

Notice the outer wall and hut circles

When we got back we had one more hot drink in their accommodation. And then it was time to go home. It was really time for the cat to get her dinner. But it had been a great time! And I'm sure they'll be back next year. I look forward to it already Maybe they will even do both a summer and a winter trip! That wouldn't be the first time…

End of timetabled teaching

I had two days of judging student posters in a row. The first day it was posters by the master students about their final projects, and the second day it was the turn of the students on the climate and climate change modules. These are two modules run together, but for both third and fourth year students; the third year students were doing a poster about something associated with sea level change, and the fourth year students were doing something with empirical orthogonal functions. They tended to run climate data sets through some software to see whether there were any particular modes in these data. One factor representing el Niño, for instance.

The first day, there was more variability, of course. These students do all kinds of different projects. It tends to be quite interesting. The students who are doing something you are familiar with peak your interest because it is interesting to see something new happening in the field you are interested in, but the posters by students who do something completely out of your line of sight tend to be quite interesting too. 

This year, for instance, there was a lady who was doing experimentation with hermit crabs. She wondered if a crab in a shell that is too small might be hesitant to exchange it for a better one if it never gets dark. Hermit crabs are vulnerable when they come out of their shell, so I can imagine they prefer to do it in the dark. But in coastal areas, darkness might not necessarily be available anymore. She also made sure to do experiments with crabs who had reason to believe there were predators around, and crabs who didn't. Interesting stuff!

Hermit crab. Pic by NOAA

With these two poster sessions out of the way, I have nothing timetabled anymore! If I now see students, it is either my own master student who is rounding off her project, or students I need to see for reasons of academic poor practice. So from now on it is marking, timetabling request, module evaluation, et cetera! Summer is nigh!

First Tuesday Evening fell race: Penmaenmawr

I had picked an interesting first race in the Tuesday evening series. That I had been recommended to bring gardening gloves already gave that away! And the weather was great for it. I changed in the office, and drove straight there. I immediately saw more runners! 

I went to the start, registered, and got my race number. And had a bit of a chat with other runners. And I recce’d the start of the route, to just get an idea. 

Arriving on the scene 

I didn’t start too far towards the front. I was feeling modest! But it did mean I was in a crowd, in the part of the race I would be best at: the uphill. And the path was rather narrow, so overtaking was hard. Maybe next time I'll be more assertive and start closer to the front! I expect all these races to start at the bottom of a hill. I might as well do as well as I can on the uphill, before I inevitably get overtaken by throngs on the way down! 

It was uphill for quite a while. In the beginning on a path, but after we came through a kissing gate, the path became rather faint, so my speed dropped. And then we got to the highlight of the race: up a gully! Or next to the gully. What route you took there was not important, as long as you ended up buy a blue flag on top of the hill. It was very steep, and there wasn't a path. This was the part for which we had been advised to bring gardening gloves! Practically everyone put their hands to the ground. And there was a lot of gorse on the slope. 

The start of the big uphill. Pic by the race organisation.

The big uphill. Pic by the race organisation

The big uphill seen from a distance. Pic by the race organisation

It was amazing fun! It is a bit weird to have your face so close to the ground while you're in a race, but it was fun to just scamper up the hill like some monkey. Once at the top, we gradually made our way down again, but only climb the same hill again, but now from a different direction. I put my gardening gloves back on for that. There was again some use of hands there!

From there on we were on a big, clear path again for a while. It was actually the path that goes past the Druid’s Circle. I sped up! But this was a fell race, so it didn't last. We had to leave the path again, and fairly soon we were back at the first kissing gate. And then I needed to find the highest speed with which I could safely run back to the finish. And then I was in!

Approaching the finish. Pic by the race organisation

I had a little chat with some of the people I had been chatting with at the start. It is a nice bunch of people, these fell runners! But we all made our way back to where the registration has been. I had left my bag there. I put on a jacket and walked back to the car. What a fun race!

Sunset from where registration had been

I am still awful at fell racing. I finished 75th in a total field of 135. And 19th woman of 46. So decidedly average! But that's a huge improvement on the previous time! And it’s not all about the results. This was fun and beautiful. I will be back!

Giving fell racing another try

I am quite prone too spraining joints. I remember rolling my ankles all the time as a child. I got pretty good at bandaging them up! In my 20s, I started to sprain my knees. That was even worse. I've also sprained my thumb; I think I sprained my right thumb twice (here and here, although I don't think I mentioned it in the latter post). And I know from climbing and caving that my elbows are a bit floppy as well.

With all these floppy joints, it is no surprise that I have never been attracted to fell running. I am terrible at running downhill! And I am terrible at running on uneven terrain, whichever direction it goes. One wrong step and I’m out of business for a while. When I wanted to be sure it wasn’t for me, and I registered for a fell race, I comprehensively came last. So that should've been the end of it.

I'm going to try again, after all. Harri, of Parc y Moch fame, has been trying to talk me into joining a series of short fell races in the evening for years. And this year the chorus got louder: a lady at the finish of Ras Trawsfynydd also recommended them. She was an Eryri Harrier, that's the club that organises these things. That race gave me a wealth of running endorphins, and I think that is an excellent high to chase, so I was susceptible to the suggestion. And during Katrien’s inaugural lecture, the people I was sitting next to were also Eryri Harriers, and also thought it would be a good idea.

In order to be allowed to join you have to register for the whole series. It’s in the Midweek Series, under the umbrella of the Welsh Fell Runners Association. Registering doesn't make it compulsory to actually show up. Or to pay. So I registered. The first race after my registration was not a good idea as I had to get out of bed at stupid o'clock the next day, for fieldwork. And the race after that I had to skip as I was teaching until so late I wouldn't have made the start.

I'll see how it goes! I haven't found a map of the route yet. The instructions recommend bringing gardening gloves, which suggests that they expect you to run straight through gorse. I think I will wear full length leggings for the occasion. And I will have to manage with the route markers, or the people in front of me, for finding the way. 

Since my doomed fell race I have become a lot stronger at running uphill. So I think I will do okay on that. And then I'll just see how the downhill goes! I don't need to do well. But it would be nice to get a regular short race in beautiful terrain under my belt. I'll report back!

Gate repair

The gate to my garden had felt a bit wobbly for a while. I had been eying up the hinges, but I saw nothing out of the ordinary there. Then one day I noticed the problem. Its post was coming out of the wall! It had been fixed with sizeable screws and plugs, but that was clearly not enough. Screws and plugs were just coming out of the wall. I needed to act. From the moment I knew that, I wasn't really comfortable using the gate.

Gate coming out of the wall 

I first removed the gate from the post. The screws that held the two bits of wood together were in good condition, and I could just unscrew them. No such luck with the screws that were coming out of the wall, so I just pulled them clean out. No way I was going to be able to get them out of the wood with those damaged heads and rusty bodies.

After some thinking I decided that the best course of action would be to take a different piece of wood, fill the holes in the wall, put the plugs back in, and then screw the new post in. That would sort it out. And I just picked a suitable piece of wood from my pile of uncut firewood.

Preparing the new beam, in my newish garage setup

Then things got busy for a few weeks. And the weather was generally awful. You don't want to handle a gate when the wind is tugging at you! And it seemed that it was always windy and rainy. One thing I did manage to get done was indicate on the new post where the screws for into the wall should go. And I pre-drilled holes. That was garage work so not so weather-dependent. And in the weekend after the dissertation talks I finally got around to installing the whole shebang. It needed a little bit of tweaking as not everything lined up, but it got done! I have a gate again! I could do with a few days off to do more such chores, but at least this one is out of the way now…

Repaired! 

Almost birthday with Kate

I had only seen her the week before, after her long absence, but the weekend after that would be Kate’s birthday. I enquired if she was up for a birthday cake. She was, and she suggested an additional walk. That sounded great to me! 

On Friday night I baked the cake. On Saturday morning I drove to Penmachno. Bryn was glad to see me again! As was Kate. And we could have coffee with cake in the garden; the weather was good enough for that. And after the cake we went for a walk. We did not want to do anything spectacular; the week before Kate pushed it a bit too hard after her recent illness, and we did not want to make that mistake again. And we did not want the hassle of walking through lots of fields with sheep and lambs, that would require tight control of the dog. We would just do one of her standard loops. But a standard loop in the Penmachno area is still spectacularly beautiful! And we found an amazing spot with a waterfall to have lunch. Bryn liked it a bit too much to take rocks from the pool underneath the waterfall, bring them to us, and shake out his fur, so we were at risk at becoming as wet as he was, but that was only a mild damper on the fun.

The birthday cake

Near the start of the walk

View on the valley 

Near the head of the valley 

Lunch spot

The other valley  

After the walk we had tea and more cake. And after some walk-unrelated stuff I made my way home again. I'm sure we'll find opportunities to get back to race recceing soon!