Carneddau horseshoe

Neil is doing an epic hike in spring, and wants to get himself ready for it. Some good long hikes are in order. And I had suggested the Carneddau horseshoe. I am in that general area quite a lot, but I hadn't done the full horseshoe in years! And it's a walk you can just do from my front door. He thought it was a good idea.

The forecast was partially cloudy during the day, and rain in the later afternoon. Good enough. 

When we started walking up the ridge towards Carnedd Dafydd it was indeed cloudy, and I feared a bit we would end up with our face in the clouds. To a certain extent, that was true. Sometimes it lifted a little bit and you got some of the amazing views. And it also got quite windy. I know that wouldn't be getting any less until we would come down on the other side!

On Mynydd Du, with Carnedd Dafydd in the cloud in the distance 

Scaling Carnedd Dafydd

We reached the summit of Carnedd Dafydd quite abruptly. And by that point it was time for coffee and a snack. And a leak. I struggled to stay upright when I was heading for a rock to crouch behind. I wasn't sure if this ridge walk would really work in these conditions. But we would give it a go. You can always descend the flank of the hill if you want to bail. 

After coffee we went on, and it was ok. We were fully out of the cloud now, and the views were amazing. There were still some snow remnants. 

Hike selfie

Snow above the Black Ladders

Sunny views

When we got to the wind shelter on Carnedd Gwenllian  we sat down for lunch. It was snug in the shelter, and outside the wind was howling. We were joined by a fell runner. 

After lunch we continued our way. It was still very blowy! I sometimes had to stand still and brace myself so as to not be blown over. But the views were still great! They got a bit gloomier over time when the weather turned. But we could just leg it home now. And we did.

Clouds come in

In the end we had done 21 km and 1150 m of ascent, in some 7 hours. Not bad! And peanuts in comparison to his epic hike, but well, Im sure it helped a bit! 

Ceiling update

It’s more work than I thought! But my ceilings are slowly improving. After the very hesitant start of putting some backboards in, several holes have now been filled with a custom-made patch. Once all holes have one, I can start applying filler. I think that will make a huge difference! But I think it’s best to do the first stage first. I try to cut the patches quite precisely to size, which makes it time-consuming. But I expect the final result will be the better for it! 

The three patched holes in the downstairs bedroom 

And one by the front door. I accidentally initially put the glue on the wrong side! I hope filler holds on it…

Faffing with the stove

I hoped I had it sorted! After lots of frustrating gluing back of the fire rope that is supposed to seal the door and keep the fumes in, I bought a fire rope in a different shape and size. I glued it in position and hoped that it would stay put for a while. The original rope seemed a real mismatch! 

The new rope undeniably fit like a glove in the little gully on the inside of the door. But after using it a few times, it became clear it didn’t stick out enough. It wasn’t sealing! 

For the time being, I just swapped the doors of the two stoves around. The other stove had been sparingly used, and its original fire rope might stick for a bit. In the meantime, Neil (who has similar issues) bought some other sizes. Hopefully, one of them would fit! 

The first (and bigger) size was clearly too big. And by the time I found that out, the door with the original rope  started peeling. I had to glue it back to keep it going for a bit. 

Gluing the original rope back

The other door, with the too-thin rope in position, and the too-thick stuff for comparison…

The next step will be to try the smaller size. I hope that will do the job! Otherwise we might have to rip out the door and take it to a shop that sells all sizes to make sure we get it right. These doors are heavy! Or otherwise; just get used to doing a LOT of gluing…

Bridge is tidal again

There has been trouble with the old bridge over the Menai Strait for years now. Recently, it had just been open in both direction for quite a while. There was clearly some work going on; there were vans of a rope access company parked near it all the time, and there were tripods from which people were hoisted up and down on the pavement. I'm not entirely sure what they were doing. But for a while, it only meant that one of the pavements was closed.

Then one day I was biking home and I noticed that the whole bridge was closed in the direction I was travelling. We had gone tidal again! In the morning, you are only allowed to drive from the island to the mainland, and in the afternoon, you can only drive the other way. So all the traffic in one of the directions has to go over the new bridge (which is an entire 16 years younger than the old one), and that causes traffic jams. This had happened before. It didn't affect me very much; I can go over the pavement with my bike. But it can be a right nuisance for car travel. 

When Dei and I tried to get back from Anglesey to main campus after our trip to Parys Mountain, It took a lot longer than normal, as we were travelling in the wrong direction at the wrong time. 

I hope it doesn't stay like this for a long time! Even though I can travel in any direction by becoming a pedestrian, it does add to your travel time if you have to walk over the bridge. And if there is no one else on the bridge I will just bike, but if there are pedestrians I do get off my bike. I don't think I'll soon have a reason to drive to work, but if I do, I am obviously going in the wrong direction. That would be annoying! But I suppose a 200-year-old bridge needs some maintenance once in a while. This is a lot better than it falling into ruin…

Being inventive with sealant

I made some progress on the ceilings. I put two more backboards in. And the next step is to glue the repair patches into position. And that, obviously, requires an adhesive.

I had been wondering if I should buy something. But I've bought things like that before. I knew I had several tubes in stock; some of them already partially used up. So I decided I should just try to use them again. But it had been a while since I had used them. Would they have dried out by now? And they are tubes; the adhesive comes out of the nozzle, but the nozzle, of course, gets clogged up quite quickly after use.

I first looked at the material I had used for repairing my render. The nozzle was surely clogged up, but there was a complication: this nozzle didn't look removable. And you can always cut it off, but that is a bit drastic. I had a look at the other tube of which I wasn't quite sure what I had used it for; maybe making the conservatory waterproof? Or for (re-)sticking antislip to my garden stairs? 

That nozzle was also clogged up. I took it off, and pushed something through the bung underneath it. There was clearly some material underneath it that wasn't dried out yet. But I didn't see a way of pushing it out. And then I decided to just cut off the entire top. It was either taking drastic measures or having to throw all of it away! And I got rid of the bung. 

I used a little spatula to get to the usable material. I think it worked! I'm glad I could save this compromise tube of sealant. I had nothing to lose! I always like salvaging things through slightly unorthodox methods. And so far it looks like it worked.. 

Only half a Parys field trip

Parys Mountain is a bit of an inhospitable place! It is very exposed. And if you have a habit of going there on a field trip in February, you might hit some atrocious weather. Last year I ended my blog post about the trip like this: 'It was a bit touch and go (because of the weather) this year, but I think we pulled it off! Let's hope that our next trip will have nicer weather…'

Well! I suppose the title of this blog post already provides a bit of a hint how things when this year. I think I meant the next trip in the series when I wrote that, but I allow myself to relate it to this year’s version of that same trip. The forecast had already revealed that the weather wasn't going to be great! We decided to play it by ear.

We drove up, parked up, and went to the viewing point, where we always start. It was foggy, but the fog wasn't very dense, and we could still see the pit for the most part. And it wasn't very cold, and even the wind wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. We were fine! And when you descend into the pit you are a bit sheltered from the wind. And we only had a little bit of rain. I got through talking about the geology without issues.

By that time it was lunchtime. We decided to go back to our minibus, and have lunch inside it. And we kept an eye on the rain radar.

When we all had more or less eaten our lunches, the rain was hammering on the windscreen. And it looked like it would still rain for another hour! Should we go back? The rest of the trip is only in industrial archaeology, basically. Not really anything we really need to teach the students. This is just bonus!

We asked the students what they preferred. They didn't have to think about that for very long. Go back to campus! And so we did. It was a bit of a pity to miss out on the amazing industrial remains, but I have seen them many times before, and the students were clearly not too bothered. So I would still put this down as a successful trip!

Teaching ramps up: climate module

In the second semester, my teaching tends to start quite subtly. The dissertation module starts straight away, with me being involved in all of it, and the first year tutorial module does its normal thing. The field trip module has three trips, but I don't normally do all three. And there is a module between the first year tutorial model and the dissertation module, but the module organiser kicks that off, and the tutorials start a little bit later.

Then I have my own module, but the teaching on it is actually started by Katrien and Jaco, and I'm only the third to take the stage. And then there is the climate module, but I am doing palaeoclimate, so it makes sense to first have the physicists teach the students about how climate works, and then I come in and place all of that on a long timescale. 

I am still teaching frantically on my own module, but this is the time that the climate module kicks off as well. And I must admit I have been struggling with it a bit for the last few years. It is taught to 3rd and 4th year students, and it is about climate. I think discussion is an important part of it. But for years I have been struggling to get the students to engage. If you have them in the room, you can ask them questions, but the risk is that the only thing they do is desperately trying to avoid eye contact. And if you ask them to contribute, by preparing something and reporting back, they generally don't. It's been a bit like pulling teeth!

I'm not giving up. This year might be the one in which I get some lively discussion going. If students of that level, doing marine science, and a particular degree that involves climate science, are not able to stand up and have their voice heard about climate, then who is? This is one of the great challenges of our time, and it needs a societal discussion. I do think it is my duty try to get the students into this. Our little classroom is a safe space where you can get a bit of practice without the risk of being torn down by the public. Or bots. Wish me luck!