Getting the field ready for the field trip

Our annual field trip was nigh! And this year, Martin was organising it, so I didn't have to stress about it. But it does require some preparation. Earlier in the year we had already gone on a coring recce. Later I had prepared my part of the documentation for the students. And even closer to the time, some flags had to be planted. The students survey a set of transects through the estuary every year, and it is important, for reasons of the data being comparable from year to year, that they survey the exact same transect year after year. So we had to put the flags that demarcate the start of each transect in the same places we had done the previous year. Over lunch one day, Martin mentioned he had to go into the field to put them there, but hadn't used the GPS for a while, so wasn't sure he remembered how it worked. I had just used it with my master student so I offered to go with him. And he took up that offer.

On the day, he would combine picking up the key to the gate with placing the flags. So after an early lunch we set off to the main entrance of the Newborough Warren, picked up the key, and then went to the western end of the area. There we first parked up quite far into the estuary. It was nice not to have to walk! Or even ride. Martin had printed a map and a list of coordinates. What could go wrong!

Then we put the first coordinates into the GPS so it could lead us there. I had not been shown that very useful functionality when I had asked the appropriate technician to talk me through how that piece of equipment worked before I took it to the Dee estuary with my master student! Now at least I know it is there, and approximately how it works. That alone might very well have been worth the trip. But strangely enough, it said that first point was 4 km away. That puzzled us, as we should be nearby. We tried another point and that worked. The GPS lead us to a post which was indeed a start of a transect, but it was so conspicuous we didn't even need to place a flag.

After a while Martin had a revelation; the second set of coordinates were for the wrong transects. But we were probably okay with the first set. So we set out to get these done. Somehow the second set would have to be done later; maybe during the introduction day. Or tagged onto some other activity going on in that side of the estuary.

The second start of a transect we wanted to mark with a flag was not that far away, and mostly over a path. We placed the flag by a shrub, and then went back to the vehicle. Our third location was a bit higher in the estuary so it made sense to bring the car.

This third location was in the middle of the marsh. And it was old-fashioned saltmarsh trudging! I am always very aware of the risk of spraining my knee, so I am very slow in terrain like that. Martin was sprinting ahead. At least I could follow his trail. That made it a little bit easier to see if there were half-hidden holes I could potentially step in. 

Carrying the GPS around

Martin + GPS in the far distance

There was nothing at the location where the GPS told us to be that stood out, but we just put a flag in. And we made it back without incident. And I remembered where that had to go; really close to the parking lot. So we got there and I placed it. But Martin argued the GPS told us I was wrong. We placed the flag where the GPS lead us. So much for human memory! By that time it was raining and we were glad that we could leave.

Some communication with Guy who had placed the flags the year before, and surveyed them in with the GPS, revealed that we had been quite right; that second set of locations was wrong, and the last flag had indeed been there I remembered it. And the other locations were also a bit off. We would have to rectify that during the actual fieldtrip! Oh well. It had been a nice half day in the field. Now I think we will never again go by a little map and a list of coordinates alone, especially without checking. But it is easily done; these days just before a fieldwork are hectic, and you rush things. But in hindsight we had to accept this rushing had only made things worse. An explanation with pictures makes it a lot easier to see if you got the right point, and it may save quite some time!

Back to Bwlch y Plwm

Kate had suggested an underground trip before term would start again. There were not many takers, but I thought it was an excellent idea! And when the day came close, she suggested Bwlch y Plwm. It is a through trip; you go in at the top, go down the first pitch, pull the rope down behind you, use it to rig the second pitch, pull the rope down again, and walk out at the bottom. And that is rather straightforward. The only thing with a trip like this is: once you pulled the rope down the first time, you are committed. Nothing should go wrong after that, as you can't go out the way you came in. 

There were two challenges with this trip. The first one was that I wasn't sure I would be able to find the entrance. I have never been good at that, but now I also hadn't been in many years! Kate said she would manage. And the second thing was, obviously, the rigging. Neither of us had a rope that was long enough for the second pitch. And I am not one who objects to just tying two ropes together, but it does include a complication. More opportunities for a rope to get snagged!

We agreed we needed to have a call-out, and I found Martin willing to be that. But I know he was busy on the eve of the field trip, of which he is the organiser this year, so I didn't want to set it too late. I told him to phone the police if I hadn't been in touch by 11 pm. But I wanted to be out by 10. I'm not much of a nightcrawler!

We met at six in Betws, and drove down together. It is fair way! And Kate parked somewhere quite far from where I had parked in the past. That threw me a bit; didn't that mean we would be quite far from the entrance? And how would we find it? But she was reasonably confident. So we got kitted up, and made a plan while doing it.

By that time it was seven, and we didn't know how long it would take us to find the entrance. And we were working on a tight deadline! I really wanted to avoid us causing a call-out. So our plan was: find the entrance, rig the first pitch, go down, go back up again, and if we had time and felt like it, go in through the bottom entrance and have a look around. That's the most interesting level anyway! And we were parked right by it.

We set off up the hill. Soon the terrain started looking familiar. But the actual entrance didn't show itself! We were just on a wild goose chase. And at some point I suggested we would just sit down and have our sandwiches. And I suggested we find a spot with a good view. Kate pointed to a good spot, and we climbed towards it. It indeed had a good view! And it had something else: the entrance! We had now accidentally found it. But sandwiches first!

When we had eaten our dinner we went in. The pitch is really close to the entrance. Kate rigged it and went down. I followed, but quickly reversed as she asked me to bring her bag which she had forgot. And then we were both at the bottom of the first pitch! Memories came flooding back. And we explored the little there was to explore at this level. And then we could come out again! I went up first, and was soon back at entrance level. Then Kate got on the rope.

Pic by Kate

Nice drippies. Pic by Kate

She struggled. She was wearing a new harness, and after a while it became obvious that she had not configured it in such a way she could comfortably get up a rope. Luckily I spotted what she could do about it and that helped! And she came out. And we walked back to the car. It wasn't very late, but it was good enough for me. That lower entrance could wait! Now that we know where the entrance was, we could come back some other day and get there a bit more efficiently. And then just do the entire trip within the given time. And Kate agreed. So we got changed. And I texted Martin. 

It hadn't been a spectacular night underground, but that was okay! We had had plenty of time to catch up, and we had even got underground and done a little bit of SRT. So a good night! And I have faith we will come back one night!

Finally removing the nicotine

I have no idea when I might get a Ukrainian in my house. But I do know how long I have been postponing a job I really should have done, probably as soon as I moved into the house. Although there were so many jobs my head was reeling! But anyway; Rose, the previous occupant of the house, had been a heavy smoker. It has been nice to pull lots of wallpaper that was sticky with tar and nicotine off the walls. I also had had to clean some ceilings, as you should not paint over cigarette smoke stains.

The upstairs bedroom, though, was the room that was in the best state of the entire house. It didn't have wallpaper to start with, and I didn't have a problem with the colour scheme or the carpet. So I just used that room as bedroom or office or both at the same time, without doing much work on it. It had been rewired when the whole house had been rewired, and I had to hide the evidence of that. And I had had the chimney swept. That was pretty much it! So the nicotine was still on the walls. And that is only just good enough for me, but certainly not good enough for a Ukrainian. 

It was time to get active! I got the sugar soap out again, and got to work. It wasn't even that much of a job. But they were places where clearly the walls have got wet, and the smoke stains had started dripping down. That was pretty horrible! And now that has been resolved.

Not a good look!

I need to do some serious re-jigging of that room if a Ukrainian would really be occupying it. And that is a bit more organisation. But the first step has been taken!

Wall repair organised

I don't know exactly when I started to be a little bit worried about the dry slate retaining wall between the upstairs garden and the downstairs garden. I think I might have got a little bit more worried about it when I had a lot of business with it, at the time when I was painting the extension. I was walking around on it a lot, and was also aware of how narrow the ledge is between the extension and the face of the wall. 

Things weren't improved when in the area, two fairly similar walls came down in February. They are probably all a similar age! And I know walls are not like radionuclides; they don't have a half life, but it didn't make me feel any better about the situation.

When I had a stonemason coming round he did reassure me that the extension wouldn't come down with the wall root of four. I still prefer it not to fall down only it's only initiative! And the original stonemason was clearly a bit of a perfectionist; he didn't like slate, and would have wanted to build the wall back up in different work. I am not keen on that; firstly, my garden is an old Slate Yard! If it is demarcated by a wall, it should be a slate wall. And additionally; if you want to remove all the tonnes of slate that make up the wall now, and bring down all the tonnes of other stone to build it back up, it becomes very expensive. 

I figured I should find out if I could find someone who was willing to take the wall down, and then just put it back with the same Stone come out but now with mortar in between. I am sure slate is an imperfect material, but I am also sure that that way you could make that wall state upright for another hundred years at least! Long enough for me.

Some light googling lead me to the "my builder.com" website. There you can give a brief explanation of what job you need doing, and then companies can respond to that. You can shortlist them and invite the shortlisted companies to give you a quote. I didn't expect things to go very fast; I was just doing some preliminary googling. But I wasn't complaining when I immediately got a response from one of the shortlisted people, and he was even available to come and have a look that very same day.

Two men appeared, and they had a look. They figured they could do it with the very same stone, and as a result there "was a lot lower than that of the previous stonemason. I told them that if they could put that called into writing I would give them the job! And that happened.

If all is well, the work will start in October. It should be done in one or two weeks. And then I will have bought myself some peace of mind! I look forward to that!

The wall

Repairing render (badly)

When I had aimed my attention to the ivy on my wall, I had noticed it had already started to damage the render. A slab had been almost cleanly pulled off! That’s bad. It was good I had removed the ivy, but this damage needed to be repaired before I would do anything else.

 

I was wondering how to do it. First I googled it, and found out there is such a thing as the render repair kit. That sounded just what I needed! And when I found myself in the B&Q anyway I had a look. They seemed to not have it in stock. They did have brick wall repair kits, but my wall is not made of bricks. And if I use improvised materials I might as well have a rummage in my garage.

The garage didn't yield anything useful; there was plaster there, and grout. That didn't seem to be the right stuff. And then a friend suggested I go to the independent shop in Menai Bridge. I did, and they recommended some cement-coloured kit. I went for it! It would be less conspicuous to just kit the fallen-off slab back into position as well as I could, than to have a batch that was just render. The house, after all, has been pebble-dashed in the past. I am not a fan of pebble dash, but given that it has been painted over in white I don't mind it anymore.

One weekend they I started the chore. I first pried off the slab; it broke into pieces. Then I removed all the ivy that had caused it to come off in the first place. And then I could have an attempt at putting it back! 

I probably should have primed the render with PVA, but I was too impatient. I first used up some other kit I still had and that was probably coming close to its expiry date. I couldn't do all of it at the same time! So I started at the top. In between kitting sessions I tried to keep their slabs in place with an old cupboard shelf and a piece of the stairs of Neuadd Ogwen. 

When all the bits had been stuck back I used the rest of the kit to try to fill in the gaps. And the end result? Not pretty! But better than it was. And I think it will stay put for years to come. It does mean, though, that I should get ready for the big job. Painting the entire front of the house! Although I suppose I should have done this over summer. Autumn is pretty much here, and that is not a particularly good painting season!

Trying to find a Ukrainian

When I added my spare room to the "homes for Ukraine" site I was a bit apprehensive. What would it be like to host a stranger? But not much happened. I wasn't sure where you could find a Ukrainian, and when the Welsh government snapped into gear I figured they might coordinate the process. Coordinating this centrally seemed like the efficient thing to do. So I expected something to happen. Not much did.

When I received a phone call from the county and was inspected I thought things would be speeding up. Maybe they are! But there is no sign of it yet. And in the meantime, I have got more apprehensive. On the one hand I have the strong impression that they only pair people up based on logistics, and on the other hand I am increasingly aware that the way I live my life is not how most people live it. It is all good and well if they find one adult female who it's okay with Bethesda as a place to live, but what if that person wants to spend the evenings watching television while eating fast food out of styrofoam containers? And the thermostat at 28°? That wouldn't combine well. It's not as if I want to force my lifestyle onto guests; I switched the boiler back on when my sister visited so she could have hot showers. But there are limits. It is the best for both host and guest if the combination is good! But how to influence this process?

The council couldn't help. Several online meetings related to hosting Ukrainians didn't help. I found nothing useful on social media. I do follow several pages associated with the issue, and sometimes there are messages from particular people who want to be hosted, but it is never one adult female who wishes to live in the Bethesda area. 

At some point I sent an email to a charity the council had pointed out to me. It turns out that they organise drop-in sessions for Ukrainians in Bangor. I was welcome to join! And that might just be the opportunity I need. Once you make a few connections then hopefully word goes around, and if there is someone in the Ukrainian community in North Wales who is waiting to be placed somewhere, and is nervous about being placed in a family were everyone spends the evenings watching television while eating takeaway from styrofoam containers, and doesn't want that, I am sure they would find a way to get in touch.

Unfortunately, the first drop-in session I was unavailable, as I was busy with fieldwork preparations. But there will be another one during the actual fieldwork! During an afternoon on a day when I only have business with the students in the morning. I really hope I can go, and finally make some contacts. And hopefully that would be the beginning of something great!

Margot Cargo

Susan had left a baking tray at my place at the end of the barbecue we had one evening. She needed to get it back at some point, of course! And she suggested she’d pick it up the next working day on her way to work. I thought it was a lovely idea, but I thought one step further: if she would be appearing at my front door with her car on the way to our respective offices anyway, I might as well just jump in myself. And so I did! It was a nice and sociable commute. I have done two half commutes of that kind recently; the first time because she just offered to take both me and the bike back home and I accepted the offer, and the second time because a meeting overran massively, and only by hitching a ride from Martin would I manage to be home in time for climbing. But this was the first time I went both ways! And on the way back we went past the B&Q.

Soon after that day, I decided I needed to bring a monitor into the office. I had a desktop there, and you can only work these things with a screen! And the only screen I had available there was my old TV, then that is only mildly compatible. But a full size screen is a bit big to put into a pannier bag. So I hitched a ride again! And this time we swung by the Waitrose on the way back.

It didn't take Sue a very long to come up with the term Margot Cargo. I thought it was quite amusing! And we might do this a bit more often. I don't mind having my time for coming home decided by her working schedule, as I have a working setup at home as well, and if she leaves too early I can just do some more work at home. I could imagine this happening a bit more often in the near future! She is driving anyway, and it is nice to sometimes share the commute. I don't mind being cargo from time to time!