Three weeks in Calabria…

This is a really quick post to put up my #project52 pictures before I run off to Italy again tomorrow, this time for a short holiday with my beloved, who has never been before. I am almost unreasonably excited about showing him around Rome for the first time and watching him have all of these amazing ‘firsts’… On the MUST DO list: The Pantheon, The Forum, The Crypto Balba Museum, Castel San Angelo and Gelato from San Crispinos… have you got any quirky/unusual suggestions to add to our list?

As you know, I went to Calabria for fieldwork. The weather was better than we were hoping, we got all of the work done, but one of my bits of kit died fairly early on in the trip, and we didn’t find a lot of archaeological anomalies. The landscape, the company and wonderful local friends more than made up for any minor frustrations though. We ate agnello, went caving, climbed precipitous things and did a survey at 1400m at an amazing place called Trizzone della Scala. There are a LOT of (mostly unedited and undescribed so far) pictures on my Flickr account, but here are my three picks for #project52….

Wieke on Trizzone della Scala #project52 week 13

Week 13 is my colleague Wieke portering my FM onto Trizzone della Scala… I love this photo because it gives you some idea of the height we were at, and of the crazy topography we needed to go over to get there. This is why the FM is on her backpack- there were places where I really needed both hands!

On the way to Grotta della Camastra #project52 week 14

This was the most ‘interesting’ bit of our hike/climb to get to a really cool cave. I needed a lot of help to get past where the lead guy is standing in this picture- at one point I was too scared to try. Fortunately, that ‘lead man’ is our friend, expert speleologist and mountaineer Nino Rocca. He’s amazing, and has at least one mountain goat in his ancestry…

The reason I was quite so nervous is more apparent when you look at the view in the other direction:

View of Francavilla Marrittima and the plain of Sibari from half way up the Serra del Gufo

The last week was a bit more relaxed, with only one trek up a serious hill, and we spent a lot of time at my favourite place, Mandrone Di Maddalena, which is right where the Raganello river forces its way through a geological fault.

Yours truly making notes on a huge rock that forms part of an enclosure at Mandrone #project52 week15

And now I have to run to work to be in time to supply early birthday cakes for my colleagues at morning coffee ^_^

Gone digging (well, not exactly)

Just a short note as I am doing my last minute hovering about the house stressing about whether I have packed enough layers, if the cold weather is going to affect our travel plans tomorrow. We aren’t exactly digging on this campaign- soil research, geophysics and field survey are the order of business until April 16th.

The week kind of got taken over by little jobs so I’m also behind on work, but I guess it will give me something to do in the evenings. We’ll be up in the mountains, staying in a village called San Lorenzo Bellizi. This means that I’ll be unlikely to have even limited internet access so I’ll be out of the loop for a week, though I’ll try to tweet by text. If you need me, you’ll have to call.

Be excellent to each other!

#project52 week 12

A late #project52 post

#project52 week11

This should have been posted over the weekend, but I couldn’t seem to find the time to sit down and write, and there isn’t a lot to say about last week. I felt blue, didn’t go running, and lost faith in myself a bit. I sort-of predicted that last week… But I’m wondering if there isn’t an element of fear of success in there somewhere.

Anyhow, enough with the navel gazing. Last Tuesday was a fun day. I took two of my student assistants out to the local park to do some testing of a pair of second-hand FM256′s that we bought towards the end of last year. We want to do some surveys in rocky upland environments, so we need something light and maneuverable rather than something designed for speedy coverage. I had so much nostalgia- it’s been ages since I worked with Geoscan instruments and their very particular repertoire of beeps and whistles took me back to so many fun PhD (and before) memories.

We were also visited by no less than 15 species of bird (that we could identify) within an hour or so of arriving. It made all of the snow and cold hands worth it.

Ice Age Art, CAA UK 2013 and even more hecticness

#project52 #week8

So, I’m still behind but I should get caught up by the end of the week. This picture I took today, but it is my #project52 picture for last week (week eight)… that may or may not be cheating, but I did a lot last week, and the thing I really wanted a picture from I wasn’t allowed to take a camera into…

 

So, last week… On Monday Matt and I ventured off to the New Forest Wildlife Park- we go at least once a year as there is always something new to see, and who could get tired of otters and owls?! This year they have added European Bison, and my goodness those things are HUGE! I knew on a logical level how big they are, but seeing one not 5m away was an eye-opener! On Tuesday I pootled over to see my folks in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight and me and my Dad went on a photography mission. I think I got some nice shots; certainly I am getting more of a feel for composition and so forth. The (unedited) highlights are on my flickr account.

Wednesday was a much needed catch up with my friend Cat- we did all the girly stuff I don’t normally do (and neither does she!) such as shopping and hair dye behaviour, then Matt cooked us dinner and we chatted about books and such. Thursday was another day to catch up with important friends- Scott came over and then we headed out for dinner with Stu and Tree. Again, lots of good talking about hobbies, books, plans. Friday I headed up to CAA UK, and live tweeted the conference, as well as curating a storify of the tweets floating about. It was another chance to see old friends and catch up on the cutting edges of my discipline. There was also epic conference swag, and QR-code cupcakes that led to open access archaeology papers! After things finished for the day I met Matt at Waterloo and we had dinner and drinks with our friend Den (who has just had his trilogy bought, so we had reason to celebrate!) and then trekked over to Greenwich to stay with a very dear friend who used babysit me, his partner and their 8 dogs (plus guinea pigs and birds)… As you can imagine, that was a bit mad but really really good.

Saturday was the second day of CAA and more tweeting, and cheering on Panda, a friend giving her first ever conference presentation (and doing a damned fine job)… I skipped the ArchCamp in the end because I was shattered, and met Matt in the West End for dinner, which was really not very good and made us grumpy. Then we headed to Pimlico to stay with Nix, who is practically my little brother, except he acts like my big brother, and his lovely other half Emma, and their very bouncy Labrador Loki, who has a thing about feet…

1 huge portion of jam roly-poly and rather a lot of wine later, we crashed out. Sunday saw us heading off to the British Museum, one of my favourite places to visit. We lurked around some old favourites and enjoyed some new things- like the gallery just installed about the enlightenment. This was a wonderful exploration of the 17th & 18th century flourishing of science and natural history, displayed like one enormous cabinet of curiosities. The current exhibition in the drawings and prints about travellers drawings from Greece was a good companion to this. I could have spent most of the day in there! We dived out to meet my friend Ish for coffee in the afternoon, before dashing back for our 4pm slot to see the Ice Age Art exhibition.

 

I was somewhat overwhelmed. It might have been the hecticness of the preceding week, and the amount of coffee, but I really had a bit of a ‘moment’ looking at the face of the woman from Dolini Vestonice, thought to be the first ever portrait of human being (as in, of a recognisable individual rather than an abstract ‘person’). The objects in the room included some of those that inspired me to study archaeology and helped me fall in love with prehistory. The Swimming Reindeer, inches from my nose. It was a moving, incredible experience. I think Matt thought I had gone a bit mad, but it was a wonderful hour and a bit communing with my ancestors. The cave installation was enthralling. I really liked how the exhibition was displayed and the information available. Part of me wanted more archaeological context- something about the environment, what we know about social groupings at the time, but that wasn’t the point: the objects were the point, and what they teach us about the arrival of the ‘modern mind’. If you get the chance, go. But book online- we were almost disappointed- by the time we bought our timed-entry tickets (at 11.30) we could only go in at either 14:40 or 16:00. I agree with the timed entry though- the figurines are tiny and numbers need to be controlled to give everyone a chance to see them very close. Even with the timed-entry some patience was needed to properly see all of the objects. Also, if you want postcards specific to the exhibit, you’ll only find them in the gift shop bit directly after the exhibit- you can’t get them elsewhere in the museum.

After that we headed home, and then I was horribly ill for two days….

 

Two weeks at once

I’ve been in Mainz since last Sunday, and it took me almost 9 hours to get home today so this is going to be a bit brief. Last week was very hectic but I had a lot of fun- we had a writing group meeting and I have a paper almost ready to go off to my PhD supervisors, I went out for dinner with friends and then to see the original Nosferatu in the A-Kerk accompanied live on the newly restored church organ, and I dyed my hair (OK, my lovely hairdresser did it for me) peacock colours.

 

Nosferatu / week 5

 

I planned to post about this last weekend, but then I left for Mainz early in case of train issues and in the process left lots of things here in Groningen, including my Dutch phone (with the pictures on that I wanted to use)… and while I had internet at my hotel it was slow and annoying, so I decided to wait. This week I’ve been processing soil samples, which was about as exciting as it sounds. Except for yesterday, when I got to use ovens that are capable of mimicking conditions inside the Earth’s crust. I only used them to cook soil at 650 C though… This meant wearing some hilarious PPE and generally looking like a giant space lobster for most of the afternoon.

I had this morning off so I took myself wandering around Mainz, and ended up at the Citadel looking for the Drususstein. I also went to the Mainz Dom (Cathedral) but it is Carnival at the moment so I couldn’t get any nice pictures thanks to the giant slightly tacky funfair in the market place. There was also a lot of marching about in Prussian War era uniforms that I didn’t really understand. I’ll post all of those pictures to Flickr at some point soon. So, now I am home, for all of three days / four nights, before I head to the UK to surprise my Grandma on her 90th birthday. I’m not sure surprising a 90 year old is that clever, but my Dad and Grandad insist she’s as tough as old boots, and it means I get to see Matt on valentines day ^_^

Proof of Life #week6