One of Those Weekends...

I'm taking advantage of a brief lull in the proceedings.  Writing-wise, I had to completely write off yesterday.  I spent three hours writing three paragraphs in the afternoon, and they're still not right (though they were three rather important paragraphs...).  It was partly the stress of dealing with my father (who has a Routemaster bus parked outside his house just now, which is mortally embarrassing...) and partly a case of intermittent book angst (the publication thereof, not the writing), which I'm sure a lot of you out there are quite familiar with. 

It doesn't help that I've got rather a difficult job coming up next week.  The Kilwinning Dig is starting, and the regular digging teams have all been press-ganged into that, so I've been appointed Odd Job Archaeologist for the duration.  I'm being shunted out to Paisley, for a project which might prove tricky.  It's a mitigation exercise - archaeology has been found (not much, but a little), so I have to deal with it to the satisfaction of the local authority curators while trying to speed things along for a contractor that really doesn't want to know. 
Looking on the bright side, at least it's local...

I think my aim over the next week is to do a series of themed posts dedicated to the architecture of medieval and early modern Crete.  It's something that gets quite eclipsed by the Minoan and the Classical stufff, but there are some nice things to see out there.  And to whet your appetite....

 

It's the town walls of Heraklion, built by the Venetians as a defence against the Turks and still surviving in the modern city.  A fine juxtaposition of ancient and modern, if ever I saw one...

So prepare yourselves for monasteries, castle and windmills.  I like a good moulin.  Especially when it's a Greek one....

In the mean time, I'm supposed to be going on a guided walk this afternoon.  No pictures, I'm afraid, because it's a place I've taken you to before - the barytes mines up at Muirshiel.  It's a nice day for it, I must say.  The sun's out, which makes a refreshing change...

Oh, and before I go, many happy returns to lbblanchard.   Hope it's a good one!!!

One of Those Weekends...

I'm taking advantage of a brief lull in the proceedings.  Writing-wise, I had to completely write off yesterday.  I spent three hours writing three paragraphs in the afternoon, and they're still not right (though they were three rather important paragraphs...).  It was partly the stress of dealing with my father (who has a Routemaster bus parked outside his house just now, which is mortally embarrassing...) and partly a case of intermittent book angst (the publication thereof, not the writing), which I'm sure a lot of you out there are quite familiar with. 

It doesn't help that I've got rather a difficult job coming up next week.  The Kilwinning Dig is starting, and the regular digging teams have all been press-ganged into that, so I've been appointed Odd Job Archaeologist for the duration.  I'm being shunted out to Paisley, for a project which might prove tricky.  It's a mitigation exercise - archaeology has been found (not much, but a little), so I have to deal with it to the satisfaction of the local authority curators while trying to speed things along for a contractor that really doesn't want to know. 
Looking on the bright side, at least it's local...

I think my aim over the next week is to do a series of themed posts dedicated to the architecture of medieval and early modern Crete.  It's something that gets quite eclipsed by the Minoan and the Classical stufff, but there are some nice things to see out there.  And to whet your appetite....

 

It's the town walls of Heraklion, built by the Venetians as a defence against the Turks and still surviving in the modern city.  A fine juxtaposition of ancient and modern, if ever I saw one...

So prepare yourselves for monasteries, castle and windmills.  I like a good moulin.  Especially when it's a Greek one....

In the mean time, I'm supposed to be going on a guided walk this afternoon.  No pictures, I'm afraid, because it's a place I've taken you to before - the barytes mines up at Muirshiel.  It's a nice day for it, I must say.  The sun's out, which makes a refreshing change...

Oh, and before I go, many happy returns to lbblanchard.   Hope it's a good one!!!