Bonus Roman fort

I'd known for years that there were remnants of Roman occupation in the vicinity of Trawsfynydd. I had never seen them. I am not in that area very often, and if I am, I sometimes have stuff to get on with. But I had seen it is really close to the power station which was race headquarters. So I figured I might go and have a look after the race! 

On the day of the race, some really heavy showers came down. I did not want to visit that fort in any of these. But when I left it was windy but dry. So I gave it a go! I parked on the layby on the other side of the road, and started on the path. Surprise surprise, it looked quite like a stream! But soon it looked like not a path at all. But I knew in what direction it was, so I didn't mind. To get to the fort you have to go through a copse, and it was stunningly beautiful! I hadn't expected that.

It doesn't look like this path attracts throngs of visitors

Would it have been raining? The path ducking underneath the old railway to Bala, which got flooded by the Tryweryn reservoir

Fairy woodland

On the other side of the copse it is just fields, and you can see the mound that is part of the fort from a bit of a distance, so I got there quite easily. Navigation-wise, that is; I was still seriously buffeted by the wind. And another rain shower came over, but luckily it wasn't a really heavy one.

I knew from having a bit of a Google what approximately to expect. You can see some banks of the old fort. The mound, Tomen y Mûr, is quite central, but might not have been part of the fort. It seems to be an 11th century motte, conveniently located in the same place. The map speaks of an amphitheatre, but I had the impression that it needs a specialist eye to see that. I sure didn't see it! It seems to have mainly been a wooden structure, and these often leave only subtle traces. 

When I was standing on the top of the mound I could only just remain upright; the wind was still that strong. I also had a look at a little stretch of wall that has been reconstructed, to give an idea of what this place will have looked like in the 2nd century CE. But then I was ready to go back to the car again. Home was beckoning, with food and hot drinks!

Looking back at the power station 

Looking at the piece of reconstructed wall, from the motte

The wall, with the motte in the background 

I was glad took the extra effort to go and have a look! It's not really a place you want to travel far for. There isn't that much to see. But just extending a visit in the area a bit to see this is quite rewarding. Especially as it is not just historically interesting, but also a beautiful landscape!

Unexpected car diagnosis

My car has been making strange noises for months. I had no idea what the cause was, but it didn't sound like a serious issue. It just sounded like some loose panel or something. And the car was handling fine!

When I walked back to my car after the award ceremony of the Trawsfynydd race, I saw something move underneath the car. Hmm! That might be something amiss. So I got down on my knees and had a look. And there was some aluminium panel that had broken loose from one of its fixings, and it was flapping around in the strong winds. That must've been the source of all the noise!

Not the best pic, but you can see the loose sheet, and the bolt with rusty washer that used to hold it. And a strip of the blue car that contained the helpful men! 

I intended to just take a picture of it and send it to Martin. He knows about cars. He would undoubtedly be able to tell me if this was a problem or not. But two men who were about to leave as well saw me stare at the underside of my car, and asked me if something was wrong. And they offered to have a look.

They said it was just a heat sensor. A heat sensor? It was just an aluminium sheet. But they did say it was ok; it would be safe to drive like that. And one managed to more or less fix it back into position. The sheet had torn a bit, so I'm sure it will need replacing in the long run, but this guy had clearly managed to fix it so well it would get me home.

Martin called it a heat shield, which seemed more logical to me. He also didn't seem worried. I suppose I might have it dealt with the next time I send my car for a service. At least I now know what the issue was! 

Ras Trawsfynydd

I had accidentally come across a race I hadn’t heard of before: Ras Trawsfynydd. It would be my second race of the year. It didn’t have much vertical, but the route looked beautiful, so I looked forward to it. And it was also a fundraiser for South Snowdonia Search and Rescue, which is of course an excellent cause. A few days before, Marjan messaged me to say she was not well, so I wouldn’t have a supporter. That was a pity! But not a dealbreaker.

I drove down in good time, and was beautifully directed to a parking spot in the shadow of the decommissioned nuclear power plant. It was a foreboding presence! I had never seen it from this close up. It looks a bit spooky. And the fact that we would be racing through a weather warning for wind was not making it any less spooky. The skies were threatening!

The power plant, seen from the reservoir dam

I went to the toilet for a last time, and went to fetch my race number. Then I went back to the car to change into my running gear. And then I was ready. This time I didn't want to do what I often accidentally do: appear at the start so late that I am starting somewhere in the rear, and then having to overtake loads of people. This time, there was no chance of that. For some reason, people weren't approaching the start at all, until they were specifically asked to do so by the organisation, only seconds before the start. I pretty much started in the second row! A bit ambitious, but I could keep up with the speed of quite a lot of people around me.

At the start 

Starting so far at the front made it easy to keep tabs on how many women there were in front of me. Quite soon I spotted four of them. That would not be good enough for a podium position, but the race was 14 km; a lot could still happen. Maybe I could overtake one or two?

The route start very beautiful. But after only a few hundred metres it started raining quite heavily! That was a bit of a pity. Luckily, it was a brief shower. And the wind blew us dry quite quickly!

The lake; just ignore the fact I took this picture before the start

With so few women in front of me I resisted the temptation to take pictures. My desire for a medal was bigger than my desire for photographic evidence of the beauty of the route. But believe me when I say it was gorgeous!

Pic by SSSAR

In the beginning I was leapfrogging with a few people. Two of them women. That was exciting. After a while I seemed to manage to leave one woman behind me. And I was just chasing a few people ahead of me. One of them also a woman.

The woman in front of me very slowly but steadily increased the gap between us. But there was a man in front of me who didn't. I was trailing him for quite a while, until, about halfway there, I overtook him. It turned out that he then spent quite some distance in my slipstream. He was welcome! I had done the same with him.

I figured that on the western side of the lake, the route would be gorgeous, but on the eastern side it couldn't last. And it didn't! The lake is quite close to the main road, and it was unavoidable to run along it for a while. That wasn't my favourite part of the race. I was glad to turn into a path again. Even though it started raining heavily again, and we had a headwind. It was a bit difficult to see where you were going with the rain buffeting one’s eyes. 

I also heard someone approach. It was a man in a Meirionnydd. We exchanged some brief pleasantries; we needed our breath for running as well, of course. And when I knew that the finish wasn't far away I kept my tempo up. I wasn't competing with him in particular; it is always more rewarding do not let women get past. But who knew what was happening behind me. And a good time is nice! So I kept going, and even ended up in a mild "swift mode"; when I breathe so hard it starts sounding like the screeching of a swift. 

When we got back on the terrain of the powerplant he overtook me. But he couldn't keep it up! I got past again, and I could hear I created a bit of distance.

I thundered over the finish. What a race! It had also stopped raining. I cheered some people on that finished shortly behind me. And I sneakily enquired what my position was. I thought fourth! But it became clear I can't count, and I had come in third. A medal! I was chuffed. And that meant I wanted to stay for the ceremony.

I spent some time at the finish, chatting with some other finishers, including the lady who had come fifth. She was an Eryri Harrier; as far as I know, the strongest club around. And also the club that organised series of short fell races that Harri (of Parc y Moch fame) had been plugging to me. I am awful at fell racing! But it still sounded interesting. She also recommended I sign up. And she also turned out to practically be Martin’s neighbour. It's a small world!

After a while I decided I should go back to the car and put on some dry clothes. It wasn't currently raining but it was very windy, and I was quite wet. That couldn't remain comfortable for long. It was nice to get out of my damp kit. And I decided to have some lunch inside the car. A good idea; it soon came down in buckets! But I was nice and sheltered in my vehicle.

When my lunch was finished and the ceremony was approaching I went back to the finish. I chatted a bit with the lady who had come second. She had changed as well; I didn't recognise her anymore. You don't tend to get a good look at your competitors. When I was running behind her I recognised her from her outfit and her hairstyle, but now she was wearing civilian clothes with a hood. 

There weren't very many people left! I think the terrible weather had chased a lot of them away. Several people who had won a prize weren’t there. And their ceremony was unusual; normally, they announce the winners counting from bronze to gold, but not here; the reason was that they didn't have fixed prizes. They just had a table with an assortment on, and you could just pick what you wanted. And gold gets first pick, of course! And when it was my turn I picked a pot of local honey. And found out that both honeypots on the table were part of the same prize. Success!

With my honey I went back to the car. I think this race is run every year; I'm keen to run it again next year! It was lovely. And the chance is slim we will have to run through a storm again!

Mummies

In November, we had tried to go to Manchester, to see an exhibition about golden mummies in the Manchester Museum. It had been Susan's idea. I don't have an unusual fascination with mummies, but it sounded like a fun day out! We didn't make it, though; there had been an awful traffic accident on the route, and traffic was completely jammed. We had to turn back, and abandoned mission.

Suddenly a message came from Susan; should we try again? On a Saturday? And I said yes. So we tried again! It wasn't without risk; that Saturday there was a weather warning out, courtesy of storm Kathleen. And storms sometimes also cause traffic disruption. But she and Dean just picked me up, and we drove Eastwards without incident. 

We had a bit of lunch and then headed to the museum. We had a time slot to enter the exhibition, and it wasn't that time yet, so we first had to look at the general archaeology section. That was a bit confusing; there didn't seem to be much of an order with regard to time and place. But I like seeing old stuff! And then we went to see the actual exhibition.

The museum

I thought it was a bit underwhelming, but so be it. The wrapping of some of these mummies is amazing! And when we were out, we just headed to the café for a drink, and then to the natural history part of the museum. That was fab! Some of it was a bit slapstick; some of the taxidermy seems to not have gone entirely according to plan. But it was great to look at animals and rocks and fossils and stuff like that.

A golden mummy

A non-golden mummy with impressive bandaging and portrait
 

The building on the inside 

Not sure East African spring hares really look like this 

They also was a geological overview of time. I like that sort of stuff! And there even was a bit about the history of understanding of the climate system! That is really up my street. It started with the scientists of the time still sticking to the biblical flood assumption, and then the evolution of understanding of things such as geological time, and the ice ages with their causation. And there are also were samples from the Challenger expedition! That is such a crucial event in palaeo-environmental research. It was people on a wooden sailing boat cris-crossing the Earth between 1872 and 1876. And the reports they wrote on the basis of what they had done are still so valuable in the present day. Their foram report is still a seminal work. Many of the species they describe have since been renamed, but who this day and age can spend four years on a research cruise? I assume they also had a lot of time to deal with their samples, and publishing their results. Probably, the people involved were independently wealthy. And I'm glad that nowadays you don't need to be anymore. But they did the work, and they clearly had the time to give all of it their full attention, and not just the spectacular bits, and it is great we can still benefit from it.

Challenger samples

When we had seen all that we were a bit museumed out. And we got back without incident. A good day out!

Next book: a Coetzee

I had been wanting to read a Coetzee for ages! I remember going to the library in Plymouth, and figuring that whatever it is they don't have; surely they have the Nobel prize for literature winners. I was wrong! And it hadn't happened ever since either. Until I was visiting Roelof. He lent me one! And he picked Summertime. And I am now reading through my pile of books people have lent or given me, so I tackled this one as well.

I don't think I need to say anything about spoiler alerts! There isn't a plot in this book, so I can't reveal it. But it has an unusual structure. It presents itself as notes gathered by a biographer who wants to write a book about a particular few years in the life of John Coetzee. Some of these notes are extracts from Coetzee’s diaries, and the rest are interviews with people who featured in the diaries, who the prospective biographer has managed to track down, and who are willing to talk to him. So you get some disjointed memories from that time, from six different perspectives. It totally worked for me!

I like books and which not much happens. Just some people struggling through life is interesting enough for me. And Coetzee seems a bit ill at ease in his skin and his family and in South Africa. I would imagine this (at least the latter) is autobiographical; in real life, as in the book, he did leave the country.

The book is in English, but people do say things to each other in Afrikaans. It was mildly annoying that they always provide the translation as well. If you're Dutch, you don't need it! But well, most people are not Dutch. 

I am already moving on in my big pile, which features no further works by this author. But if the opportunity presents itself again to read a Coetzee, I would take it! On the basis of this first book I like his style. But first I'll deal with some non-fiction, and some Dutch fiction. Enough to do!

Next big thing: the dissertation presentations

With the Athena Swan application out of the way, and Easter also behind me, I needed to get on with the next big thing: the dissertation presentations. Firstly, I had to make a program. I always have to do an inventory of which staff is available when; the event stretches over two days. And there are always staff who have other things on as well. So I have to plan the sessions around that. This year it also involved a third day for staff who were away on a scientific conference the entire week. 

This year, there was also an issue with students having other things on. This has happened before, but that year, it was a small selection of the students who were double-booked. This year it was the majority! I can’t plan around that. The other engagements would have to go. 

With all that sorted, and the sessions organised, I had to prepare all the paperwork. Flesh out the sessions, with all students given a slot, and prepare a conference booklet with all talks and their abstracts in them, to be ready on the day. 

It was conspicuous that just two weeks before the event, only one student had an extension. I was wondering if that number would skyrocket in the last days. Last year, in the end, 23% of the students had an extension. But I hope last year was just a bad year in that respect. If the sessions are half empty, it’s a bit bleak. But I will soon find out how this year goes…

Spring efforts in the garden

Spring is a time for doing things in the garden! This year is not an exception. And Easter in particular seems to be a fair time for it. So when I suddenly, after a very busy time, had some days off, one of the things I did was indeed hit the garden.

I had made the last attempt at finding a gardener. Or rather; a garden designer. But it seems that practically no one does planting design. The only suggestions you get if you put out a call for recommendations are for people who are willing to build raised beds, fences, paths, et cetera. That's not what I need! So I decided to try myself after all.

I didn't get very far over Easter! There were lots of other things going on as well. And I didn't really know where to start.

The place where I started, in the end, was just cutting the grass. It was really needed by now! And the next thing on the to-do list was my ceanothus. I had bought it years ago, and I should have pruned it every year to keep it within boundaries, but I have never done that. And it was getting way too big. And now I decided that I just had to cut it back rigorously. I suspected it would recover. And if it doesn't, I have just learned the hard way.

Difficult to get a good picture of the Coneathus

I also started to clear a lot of ivy from the raised bed closest to the river. Some of it is completely overgrown. But I had been tackling the trees in that corner, which opened up the space considerably, and now I thought I should do something with that space. Clearing ivy is hard work! I didn't get very far. But a start has been made.

Before

Not quite yet after

I also went to the garden centre. If I would create a new bed, I needed plants for it. And that raised bed has heather and conifers. So I bought a few more! I also bought some replacements for plants that had been growing in pots at the front of the house. Sometimes one dies. And I bought some ground covering plants for my rockery.

With the clocks having been changed to BST, I do expect sometimes be able to do a bit of after work gardening. I started a job, and now I need to continue with it! But I think that even though it would be untalented old me doing the planting, I will at least be able to make some good progress on the heather bed and the potted plants on the north side of the house. And that will feel good.