First casualty of the New Year

On New Year's Day, I cast a look into the garden, and I was a bit taken aback. I have a rosebush growing in the upper garden, against the wall that separates my garden from those in the next street down. It grows like the clappers, and I had had doubts about it. It is continuously trying to grow in the direction of the stairs to the downstairs garden. And it being a rosebush, it grips you. I had two reasons for not chopping it down; one is respect for the previous owner. I am convinced that it is not a coincidence that the garden had quite a lot of rose bushes and rosemary shrubs. Rose's full name was Rosemary! So I figured all roses and rosemary's were a tribute to her. I had already murdered several, and this was the biggest one.

Oh dear

The other reason was that the scrub provided a bit of a screen between my garden and the next, where the wall wasn't very high. I'm sure these people like a bit of privacy! But I had had to chop it back quite often just to get to the stairs. But now nature had decided for me. It had to go. 

After I came back from my walk, I chopped and cut until it really was too dark. I had got rid of most of it! But the rest needed to wait for the next day.

Work in progress

On January 2 I finished the job. I got rid of all the branches, and cut all the thicker bits of wood into log burner-compatible sizes, after having removed the thorns. I had just finished the 2018 firewood; that meant I now had shelf space for a brand-new 2022 pile! That rose can now wait a few years while it dries out, and then it will come in handy later.

All chopped down and ready to be disposed of!

Only firewood left!

In a way, this is a big improvement; nothing will now get between me and my stairs. But I do have quite unimpeded few into one of the adjacent gardens! But maybe they will just put a shrub up if they don't like that. It doesn't really bother me. And on my side, anything so big that it would indeed impede to view, will also impede access to the stairs, so I won't plant a replacement.

We'll see in the coming days how I like the new configuration. I might actually quite take to it!

New Year's Day

 On New Year's Eve, Guy asked me what I was doing for New Year's Day. I had no idea! I had not looked that far ahead. But he was right that it might be an idea to have some clue, so I got the weather forecast out. And I looked at an unexpected plethora of sun icons. That looked like weather I needed to take advantage of! I figured I might do Tryfan. I had only been up once! And with such sunny weather the views would be amazing.

That night it was very windy, and in the morning the wind hadn't sufficiently died down to do a mountain like Tryfan. I would have to reconsider! And the view outside the window wasn't exactly indicative of blazing sunshine, but the forecast had said the sun would mainly be out between 2 PM and sunset. It wasn't anywhere near 2 PM yet. I first did some chores; for instance I had a big pile of dishes from the night before to do. And I decided on Carnedd y Cribau, near Pen y Gwryd. I had never been, it wasn't far away, and it was the sort of terrain you can cross in high winds. So I packed lunch and left. I almost forgot my sunglasses; I stuffed them into my jacket pocket and was off.

I knew there were no official paths in this part of the world, so I was glad to find something even more sophisticated than a sheep track leading in the right direction from where I parked. It vanished and I had to do some bushwhacking in difficult terrain with hummocky grass, but later I found a sheep track which made things easier. And the beautiful weather had not materialised at all, but the views were beautiful. I climbed up to Cefnycerrig, and there I found a spot out of the wind to have lunch. I decided that the weather was not going to improve, and I could put my sunglasses away. But where were they? Nowhere to be found! Oh dear. I quite like the sunglasses. Would they have fallen out of my pocket? Luckily, the case they are in is quite big and white, so it wouldn't be the hardest thing to find back. I considered my options. What to do? It would be difficult to retrace my steps as I had been bushwhacking between very faint paths. But I decided to chance it. I packed my stuff away again and just headed downhill again.

Start of the walk, at Llyn Pen y Gwryd

Dam and sluice

Empty landscape

Pen y Gwryd from a distance

After a while I decided that the most likely thing to have happened was that I actually had lost them inside the car. So probably, my mission was futile. But I really wanted my sunglasses! And I tried to make my way back to same way I had come up.

No glasses case was seen. And then I got to the car. And indeed, there it was, on the driver's seat. It must have slipped out of my pocket when I was still in the car! So that was a relief. But now there was still some afternoon left. No blazing sunshine, though; I wondered if I should have bothered to check the weather forecast a few miles further inland. I really wasn't far from home; some 12 km as the crow flies, but sometimes weather systems get snagged behind a mountain ridge, and that could have been what had happened. But it was okay. It was beautiful where I was!

I decided to just cross the road and head up the path in the other direction. I hadn't been that way very often, and I certainly hadn't kept to the left. I know there was a lake up there: Llyn Cwmffynnon, and I had never actually been! So while the weather only got worse, I staggered up to have a look. The landscape was beautifully empty. And I was wrestling against the wind and the rain when I got to the lake. Not a bad result! But then I decided to turn back. It wasn't the best of weather, and I know I had a big chore to do at home. But my cobwebs had been blown away! Not a perfect start of 2022, but not bad at all!

On the other side of the road

Where is that glorious weather?

Llyn Cwmffynnon, with the Snowdon Horseshoe in the distance

New Year's Eve

I hadn't really made plans for New Year's Eve, until Guy told me that Kate wouldn't be working on the 31st. I saw possibilities! Martin was up for joining. What a crew to end the year with. But things weren't as straightforward as that. Kate is not working is a bit like pigs flying, so maybe I shouldn't have been surprised when Guy told me she was anyway, and would have to bail. But it was a bummer; I had been looking for it to seeing her again. And then Guy was nervous about omicron, and wanted to meet outside. On New Year's Eve? That could be interesting. But if that's what it takes. So on the 30th I put up a tarp in the garden. There was no rain forecast for the 31st, but you never know! There certainly was rain forecast on the 30th. And my enemy would be the wind. I have a rather big tarp, and the wind was grabbing it. I have a smaller one too, but I wasn't sure that would be big enough for three people and a fire pit.

Crowbars make good tarp pegs

I also got the fire pit ready, and I thought about lighting, and I got firewood and charcoal ready. And I made sure I had enough head torches ready for people walking between riverside and house. And I bought and prepared food that would go well with a barbecue.

Good buns!

On the very day I did more prep. I was feeling a bit glum; it's only New Year's Eve 2021 once, and I felt like I was letting people down. It was kind of Martin to join us, but instead of a snug night with four people, he would be getting shivering outside with just three, one of which wouldn't even be able to make it until the end. And he could have had a night at Katrien's. But we had to roll with it now. 

Guy got in touch; what about a brief walk before lighting the fire? I was up for that, and suggested Moel y Ci. Martin couldn't join; he was making bread. But Guy and I met up, and had a lovely short walk. We walked around the hill; I didn't think the top would be a good idea as it was blowing a hooley. We also bumped into one of the archaeologists whose brain I had had the honour to pick multiple times over the summer! That was nice. But Guy saw the weather and decided we could meet up indoors after all. I had been preparing all the outdoor activities for the cat's violin! Oh well. Better just sink that effort and be comfortable inside, than to continue with the outdoor nonsense and be blown into the river. But next time I'll take everything he says with a pinch of salt.

Flirting with the resident buffalo. Pic by Guy

When we got back, the cat was there to welcome us. I'm sure Guy must have had a lump in his throat! She let him pet her excessively. But then we lit the fire and put on some music and got ourselves drinks and put mushrooms filled with blue cheese on the log burner. And waited for Martin to appear. By the time he did we had another drink. By then I was ravenous! I had expected us to have started with food hours before. Guy would have had to leave fairly early so I figure to be would start barbecuing at three. So I was keen to get some food going! And the fire wasn't being particularly quick with the mushrooms. So we went to the kitchen and sped things up a bit, with the use of my oven and frying pan. Martin had brought amazing marinated salmon and stuffed peppers. I had baked buns, as you need bread with a barbecue. And I had made some tapenade. Soon I wasn't ravenous any more!

Maybe I wasn't ravenous but I still was not full, so we went for the second round. I had lamb steaks. I roped Martin in to actually cook them as I have very little experience with cooking meat. They turned out perfect! Of course they did. And they were great on my buns.

I had had bananas with chocolate in mind as desert, and Guy had brought Christmas pudding and mini hazelnut tarts. After our three course meal, though, there wasn't an awful lot of space left in stomachs for that. And by then as well, duty was calling for Guy. He needs to scan coasts at low tides for his research, and January 1st had a suitable tide. He would have to get up early! He can't wait for daylight; when the tide is right he needs to be out. He has been having some gruelling field days in the past months…

After Guy was gone Martin and I continued on the mulled wine. And the laser pointer came out! The cat was enjoying the attention, and Martin is not used to such youthful enthusiasm in a cat anymore. She even put a paw on his leg. This is a cat who has never sat on my lap in the 10 months she has lived here! So that was a big thing.

When midnight approached we went into the garden. I figured it would be nice to go into the New Year in the fresh air! And that turned out to be a good idea. On the other side of the river, some really impressive fireworks were on display. 

And with that, 2021 came to an end, and we glided frictionlessly into 2022, in the windswept dark garden. May 2022 bring good things!

Late 2021 visitor

For years, I saw Miles on a regular basis as we were having a digging project. The last time we had a session was in October 2019. Then Miles got busy with other things. And not much later, lockdown happened. We didn't see each other until lockdown was eased almost one and a half years after that. We saw each other in Dinorwic, and at his place, and at Conwy Falls Café. And I figured the next step should be that he comes over to mine. He hadn't met the cat yet, for instance! And nothing happened for months, and I was wondering whether a post-digging friendship was not going to happen after all, but before the year was fully over, it did happen. He came over for tea and cake and it was lovely. And he scratched the head of the cat so she was happy too. I don't know if, let alone when if so, we will rekindle the digging project, but we were clearly a good team and it is good to know that still works outside slate mines. More of this in 2022! 

Making friends

Saying goodbye to 2022 part I

New Year's Eve happened in two parts this year! There had been some juggling of plans. My colleague Katrien had suggested a social on the 28th, but I had said I couldn't make that as I was supposed to only fly back on the 27th, and would not have had the result of my compulsory PCR test. And that meant I wouldn't be allowed to see anyone yet. And I had suggested Guy and Kate would come over in the Christmas holiday period and catch up with their old cat again. They had suggested the 31st as Kate wouldn't be working then. And I thought it would be great to spend the last day of the year of them. But then suddenly I wouldn't travel to the Netherlands, so I wouldn't have to self-isolate, so I could go and visit Katrien on the 28th. When I told her that, she spontaneously suggested we do New Year's Eve instead. But that's where Guy and Kate were! Katrien then decided to go back to the 28th, and we would have an alternative New Year's Eve on that date. And that's how things turned out.

The 28th was nice. We were the same company that had been chocolate fondueing months earlier, but now with Katrien's family added. I don't get to see her bloke very often. And the children were initially a bit intimidated so they preferred those parts of the house we weren't in. That suited me fine! And even though it wasn't really New Year's Eve, Katrien had brought the bubbles out. And that was followed by endless rounds of snacks. And a full meal. And loads of drinks! As I was a designated driver, I didn't drink anything other than alcohol-free beer after the bubbles. I really drank an unfeasible amount of the stuff. But these days, they make really good stuff! With Katrien being Belgian, there was a lot of alcohol-free Leffe. But not anymore at the end of the night. 

We did a lot of catching up. And Katrien's daughter kept bringing us drawings she had made. I got a really good one, with my house on it! Not that I would have known it was my house, or any house really, if she wouldn't have explained it, but it was still a very good drawing.

We actually made it until past midnight! It had been a good night. It was still 2021, but we already had a good goodbye to the past year under our belts…

Project duvet cover

 My double duvet is Dutch. That means it doesn't have a size that you can easily buy duvet covers for. And I had a duvet cover I liked; it was getting old so it was starting to show signs of wear and tear. I had repaired it several times. But one night I was lying in it and I just wanted to move to duvet a bit, but I gripped straight through the fabric. It is so thin now! And brittle. It was clear that it was quite beyond repair by now. So I had to act.

Some googling showed me it is really difficult to order of fitting duvet cover online. The next best thing is by a duvet cover that has either the correct width or length, and an overabundance of material in the other direction. Then you can just make it a bit smaller. So I decided to go for that! Even that narrowed the choice down quite a lot, but I found a model in the right width of which I thought it would look fine in my upstairs bedroom. It was quite a lot too long.

When I took the old one off I noticed it had four repairs and three unrepaired occurrences of damage. I think I got my money's worth out of that one! And now it can be a sheet that could protect my floor next time I want to do some painting work…

It arrived, and then the dance began of fitting it. Putting a double duvet in the duvet cover is always a bit of a faff! 

When I took the old one off I noticed it had four repairs and three unrepaired occurrences of damage. I think I got my money's worth out of that one! And now it can be a sheet that could protect my floor next time I want to do some painting work…

But I wanted to get it right with the new one, so I made a bit of an effort. As it had a pattern I didn't want to just put a huge hem in the bottom; that would really move the pattern to an unbalanced position. I shortened it on both sides! But doing a bit of needlework while listening to an interesting podcast is not a punishment.

I slept downstairs while I was faffing with this duvet cover. When it was finally done I look forward to having the choice again! And I am ready again for several decades. The old duvet cover lasted a fair while, and I see no reason why this one won't!

The cat 'helps' and clearly thinks it smells weird

Finished!

Looking back on 2021

Last year I provided a small overview of 2020, and I expressed my hopes for 2021. And now we are a year later. How did my hopes turn out? And how has 2021 been?

What I wrote was: "So what now for 2021? I intend to become so good at voice control I pretty much don't have to use a mouse at all for the entire year. And I hope I will get vaccinated. And I hope everybody else does too! And I hope I will be back working full-time in no time. But that I will have the wisdom to not work myself an injury for an employer who might just as well turn around and decide they don't need me. And I hope I will get to see, and hug, the people again I wish I could have seen and hugged last year! Stay tuned…"

Most of that actually works out quite well. My mouse has seen very little action in 2021! And the situation is not an unqualified success, of course; after a long time of my RSI healing, it then went into reverse and got worse again. I am still in the process of trying to sort that. So my wish for 2021 is: that I manage to find the best possible technical solutions for my issues, and that I get rid of my RSI altogether.

Going back to work full-time worked out pretty much instantaneously. The problem with work was not how many hours per day I did it; the problem was how much my hands got to do. And I did learn how to work my computer pretty much entirely by voice. It's quite slow, but you can get almost everything done.

I also hoped I would get vaccinated, and boy did that work out. I don't think I expected to get three doses within the year!

My desire to not work myself into the ground was not an unmitigated success; my low point basically was the start of term, when I was already feeling on the brink of burnout. The combination of fieldwork, dissertation module and welcome week was quite heavy. And it is disheartening to already feel like you're burning the candle at both ends when it's only August! But this was an unusual situation. I should never again have the responsibility for both the fieldwork and welcome week, which happen back-to-back. And it will never again be the first year we run the fieldtrip on Anglesey.

And what about seeing and hugging people? Well, again not an unqualified success. I was again allowed to hug the people I actually got to see, but I only got to see people within Wales. I didn't make it to the Netherlands in the entire year! It has been close, but there has been no cigar. But the times you could only see people that lived within walking distance, and then only from a distance of 2 m; that time seems so far away now.

Time has the habit, though, of throwing things at you you didn't see coming. So apart from whether my expectations came through a not, what else happened this year?

One thing I knew that would happen was that we would start the new term with two colleagues fewer: Suzie and Adel left. I am glad to say I am still seeing Suzie, lockdown and baby permitting!

One thing I totally didn't see coming was that in February, I got a cat. And it's been amazing! She does complicate going away, but going away wasn't a very 2021 thing to do anyway. And having a silly creature tearing through your house and scampering through your garden and sleeping by your side is great. I was a bit grumpy when Guy told me, when he handed me the cat, that I would fall in love with her and never give her back, as I like to think I make such decisions myself, but he was totally right. As I write this, it has obviously already almost been a year that she's lived here. Time flies!

I also did some quite needed work on the house and the garden. When I bought the house I realised that one thing that really needed doing was a bit of work on the extension. Some of the wood needed repair, and all of it needed an urgent paint job. And this spring I got around to it. And after years of focusing on the downstairs garden, and allowing the upstairs garden to still be a bit of a jungle, I pulled out infeasible amounts of brambles and buddleia, and turned it into something resembling a garden. I have been enjoying that ever since!

I have also been forced to change my habits and think about my own interaction with carbon emissions. My boiler broke three times in a row, so I really need to think about a replacement. And I want that replacement to be as environmentally friendly as feasible. And it having broken gave me the habit of having my showers cold. As I write this I still have that habit!

Something that might reach into the future was that I started liaising with Adult Education Wales. I had fired off an application letter in the distant past when redundancy was looming over me, and now they suddenly got in touch. 2022 will be the year this collaboration will take solid form!

Spring and summer also brought sadness. When the ban on seeing people in your garden was lifted I immediately invited Martin and Fran down. It turned out Fran was ill and couldn't really come over to my place, so I went up the hill instead. And that would happen more often. Fran didn't get better. I wish we could have hung out more before she fell ill. She died in summer and she is sorely missed.

Life is full of contrasts, and the highlight of the year was also in summer. My friend Kate had been talking about wanting to do the Slate Trail, and I had subtly enquired if maybe I could join. And she was up for that. So in late July we hoisted our backpacks on our backs and we were off. We tried to cram it in too little time, and we really pushed ourselves to the limit, but it was a beautiful trip and Kate was a great hiking mate. And the fact that we covered ludicrous distances per day makes for good stories afterwards!

In late summer I also decided to stand for (membership) secretary of the cave rescue team. A mail had gone around from the previous secretary, who was the only female in the committee and one of the few females in the entire team, saying she was stepping down. And after my rather unpleasant experiences with misogyny in the underground community, I decided the team really needed significant female input, so even though I was already buckling under the strain of my day job, I stepped forward. And now I am more involved in the team than I ever was.

The end of summer brought a lot of work; I always have a fair amount of work on the dissertation module in summer, and I am also organising Welcome Week. And just before Welcome Week we have our third year fieldtrip. This year would be a lot more work than normal; we had to now do this trip in North Wales, so we were back at square one. And due to Martin being off work I was asked to organise it. That involves a lot of herding cats! And jumping through bureaucratic hoops. It wasn't organised in a particularly perfectionist way, but there was a fieldtrip. And a lot of work has now been done that doesn't need to be done next year. And hopefully, next year the pandemic will be getting in the way to a lesser extent. And Welcome Week was a bit of a struggle too, but I have seen the feedback from the freshers, and considering circumstances we were clearly doing quite a good job.

Then in September, term started again. As I had been busy with almost exclusively to dissertations, Welcome Week and the fieldtrip, I was not very prepared, and I struggled a bit to keep up. But I got there. And we're going back to seeing students face-to-face! It was good to seeing them again, although I can confirm it is not the same if they are all wearing masks. It is really difficult to get to know their names and faces if the only thing you see is pieces of cloth with two eyes looking over the top. And I wasn't quite sure how the logistics would work, but it turned out it was quite doable to just commute to campus by bike, and if there were gaps between contact hours, find a quiet corner and do some work on my laptop.

Autumn and winter did seem to involve a bit of a reversal in time. I had spent years on a trajectory of more sport, earlier days, and less alcohol. I'm not suggesting I became a health freak, but I was quite going with the health-conscious times. But my tightening connection with Mart, Sue, Dean and Tom reconnected me with the concept of midnight, and of several alcoholic consumptions on one day. It has been really good to be accepted in this crew. I've been having great times with them!

And now it is almost 2022. So what do I hope and expect for the New Year? I do hope the pandemic will become less intrusive. I hoped that last year, but well, I will have to just hope it again. I also hope that at the end of the year, will be RSI-free. Another one I was already hoping last year! I hope that my interaction with Adult Education Wales goes well and leads to more things in the future. I hope I'll manage to find a replacement for my elderly boiler that is as environmentally-friendly as possible, and that I will get it installed. I'm not sure I should consider relying on it another winter. And I hope I will find another opportunity to go for a long hike with Kate, and that I will have loads of good times with the usual suspects. Watch this space to find out how this all pans out, and what curveballs life throws at me in 2022!