Autumn vegetables

I have started tidying up another part of the garden. And I am scared I will have to self-isolate! So I thought I should make sure I have what I need for my garden before teaching would get serious. I might have to stay in my house + garden for two weeks, so I'd have time to garden, and then it would be frustrating to not have any materials! So when I had to go to Bangor anyway one day, I popped by the garden centre to buy a few more plants. And some sticks for my peas. And I saw they had a display with vegetable seedlings they said were ideal for autumn planting. I couldn't resist! I bought a tray of 'winter peas' (no, me neither) and one with cauliflower. I knew the peas would be fine. I wasn't sure about the cauliflower! Maybe the slugs would get it. And a tray has many plants, and if all the cauliflowers would do well I'd be drowning in the stuff, but well, a whole summer of experience with trying to grow vegetables makes me very un-afraid of overproductivity.  

It was a struggle to find space for all the peas! I had underestimated how many seedlings they can stuff into one tray. But with some effort I managed to place them somewhere. A few will probably be killed by the neighbourhood cats. 

After a few days it looked like all seedlings (except one rather eaten cauliflower plant) were happy in their new surroundings! And I added the rhubarb plant I inherited from Suzie. And now I'll wait and see how things develop! 

Cauliflower seedlings with winter peas in the background 

Garden taming in progress

These are busy times so garden projects drag a bit! In the past two weekends I had been tidying up a corner of the garden, but I had a lot more to do. I had cleared a patch I had intended to sow grass in, but I would first have to level it before I could sow the seeds. And I wanted to do that soon, as I wanted to give the grass some time to sprout before winter would hit. So on the third weekend I did the levelling. The excess soil went into the apple tree bed. I can use that later to fill pots! 

Grass to be! 

I also made progress on the emptying out of the apple tree bed. Once that is done this side of the garden will be done! But there is still a lot more to do...

Welcome Week: how did it go?

It’s done! Welcome Week is behind us. And how did it go? Well! I think it was a mixed bag. It was bound to be. You can’t have what people think of as a traditional Welcome Week in a pandemic. It was always going to limit things! No indoor gatherings, lots of online activities, social distancing... and as well, the university didn’t want all students moving in at the same time. That would mean lots of people in corridors! So the students had to come in spread out over more time. And that meant that on the Monday, not that many students had actually arrived. They would keep arriving until the Sunday before teaching! 

As the students and their peer guides could only meet outside, the whole event was rather weather-dependent. The Peer Guides had organised lots of trips: in town, to the Pier, and to the beach. And the week started with glorious sunshine! But North Wales in late September: glorious sunshine can't be taken for granted. And it did leave. It got colder and wetter! Unfortunately. 

We also had the usual communication problems, but exacerbated by the pandemic. Since GDPR came into force, we are rather restricted in what information about the new students we can give to the peer guides. When the new students register, they have to indicate what information they are happy with to be shared. And most toggle on only their Bangor University email address! But that means we (peer guides and such) can't contact them until they have activated their university account. The university itself can email them reminders to please do that, but practice has shown they are not as active with that as we would like. And in other years, the peer guides can just knock on their doors and introduce themselves, but now that's illegal! So we had a bit of a problem of new students only keeping an eye on their private email accounts, and missing loads of vital information. Last year I had already tried to convince the people who made the registration page to please please please add big flashing fluorescent messages saying: please allow us to give your personal details to your peer guide, because otherwise they'll struggle to contact you. I think it hasn't happened! I keep my fingers crossed for next year... 

I have spoken with quite a lot of students by now and most are quite happy with how things panned out. I suppose, though, that it's the students I haven't spoken with that may be the ones that could be sitting lonely in their halls, staring at their private mailbox, and feeling a bit lost! I hope it's not many of them...

High-intensity teaching prep

We always knew teaching would start. We know exactly when! But you always end up running out of time in the end. So the last weeks were very hectic. Getting the module websites ready, recording lectures, preparing for activities that can be done during the live sessions, etc etc etc. It's OK if you have to work hard at it, as long as it's ready when it needs to be! But I ended up doing routine days of getting up, having breakfast, going to work, having lunch, working, running, having dinner, working, and going to sleep. Repeat. It's not ideal but has to be done sometimes! 

The Dissertation module had been running for a while, but the website wasn’t finished yet. I had to make a schedule of what the students were expected to do from week to week. And there was a bit of an issue with the new software: could 150 students track their progress on one module website? The software company said yes but trying it out indicated no. So in the end I had to find a different solution. We ended up in the hands of Microsoft! At least their software is a bit more tried and tested. 

The our module on applied marine geology went live! And then the glaciology module too. There is still a lot of material to produce, record and upload, but we can do that along the way. I think the first milestone to reach is 'reading week', a week with no teaching! It's not a week off; we have lots of meetings, and more preparation work of course. But it will be a week in which making materials will go faster than using it! It's the first week of November. By then we'll have come through the first full week of teaching! 

Christmas will be the big break, of course. The end of the first semester. But it won't be much of a break. We will have to prepare for the second semester! but one thing helps: by then we'll be hacks at this blended learning thing. And then reaching the summer will be the real break! And that's a fair while away. But something tells me time will be flying the coming months... 

Cake in the garden

It's been legal to hang out with several households for weeks now! I personally haven't taken advantage of that much. We had been on a three people walk. That's it! But it was time to enjoy it a bit more. Suzie had invited both me and Martin and Fran from up on the hill over for tea and cake. And it would be a great day for it! 

In the morning I baked another apple pie. Some of it was 'Storm Ellen' apples, and some of it was from my own tree. And in the afternoon I went north! And we spent the afternoon in the garden, drinking buckets of tea and eating the apple pie (which fell apart like the clappers, oh dear, it looked good before I stuck a knife in) and Suzie's brownies. It was good! I hadn't seen Martin and Fran since the rather chilly night in my garden. And now I managed most of the time in a tank top, shorts and sandals. 

When we left we didn't leave empty-handed; Suzie (and/or her husband) is amazing at growing food, and she had more rhubarb than you can shake a stick at. We both left with an entire plant! 

Doing things like this will soon become more difficult as the weather will get colder and the days shorter. It's good to enjoy this sort of stuff while we can! 

Unclear picture of Suzie’s cat on my car

Still more chaos fighting in the garden

I had made a good start in the garden last week! But there was more to do. I had decided to tame all the chaos in that part of the garden. I had got to a shrub last time; this time I chopped said shrub back a fair bit more. And then pulled out everything between the shrub and the raised bed with the apple tree in. Then I pondered a bit and decided to make the raised bed I had tidied up the last time run past the shrub, but not much further. I could demarcate it with rocks from the riverbank. And between the beds I would sow grass. And I decided to take out everything except the apple tree out of the apple tree bed. And then I would need some ground covering plants for the newly exposed space. 

I managed the rocks, but not much more. I did get to the garden centre and got some plants. But then other activities required my attention! So now the rock-demarcated raised bed is OK for now. The bit that will be grass needs to be levelled. It's much higher than the lawn! I figured I could just temporarily put the excess soil in the adjacent raised beds. I'm sure it will get depleted soon! My potted plants require a lot of the stuff. and only after the levelling can I sow the grass. And the plants need planting, and I did some clearing of the apple tree raised bed but not all. So this project is still very much in progress! Stay tuned... 

Jungle mostly cleared!

Not finished...

Support local craftspeople

In a clumsy mood I had dropped a small plate. And these are good for lunch! If you just have a sandwich you don’t need a full-size plate. And small plates sometimes come in handy if you put your plants in such big pots you don’t have anything to put said pot onto. So I thought I should buy a few replacements. And normally I would go to the charity shop, but this time I decided to go to the nearby pottery shop. 

I had been wondering about this shop. How would Bethesda be big enough to sustain a pottery shop? But well, it managed. And I decided to get my plates there. And some mugs while I was at it. Not that I lack mugs, but they’re just beautiful! 

When I came in they had just run out of plates and mugs and were preparing a new batch of the former. That meant I could choose my design! The plates would take a bit longer, but for these I also gave my preferences. And a few days later the potter waved frantically at me through the window; the mugs were ready! So now I have my hot drinks in mugs made within 100m of my house. That’s lovely! And I look forward to my plates...