Wild Goose Chase Time...

It was a lovely day to be out on site.  I can't say I was looking forward to it (you can get too much of a good thing) but I was resigned to spending a day in the great outdoors.

Traffic was dreadful, so I arrived slightly late, to find myself confronting a hurrendous gooey mess.  They'd already carried out the turf-stripping, which although not ideal, was agreed with the curators, and very little damage to the topsoil and subsoil was done, so everything was hunky-dory.

They asked me then where I wanted to put my trenches.  So I pointed out that my trenches were in effect, their trenches.  We'd be digging in the same places. 

They looked crestfallen.  There were slippages on the job and they weren't yet ready to dig their trenches.  They'd kind of hoped to put me off, but someone hadn't informed us that there'd been a delay.  I hung around and took some photos, which wasn't nice as the entire site (the size of a football field) is now covered with disgusting slippery gloop that congeals onto your boots so you're left with big mud-balls on your feet which have to be carved off with a trowel.  Every time I meet that kind of goo, my heart goes out to the poor lads in the trenches in the First World War, because their miserable lives must have been full of it.

Ah well.  It was all for nothing.  And there's my poor car, with its chipped windscreen, having to drive here there and everywhere for nothing, AND it's jeopardised my revised windscreen repair next week.  AAARGH!!!!

Went back to the office via Kilwinning, and paid a visit to the Dig team.  I was shown some real archaeology and my colleagues and the volunteers showed off their awfully nice trowelling and some awfully nice walls that they'd uncovered, and teased me about the fact that I came onto site wearing a hard hat (I was checking out the Main Street) and generally being 'commercial'.

Then I went back to the office and did the hoovering, and at that point, I really did begin to feel like Cinderella!!

Oh, on the plus side!  I've tried cleaning up some of the plaster-of-paris moulds that got dug up on the pottery site we were digging, and they're fine!  They've survived really well, though cleaning them up is proving rather difficult.  If you brush them too hard, the plaster gets abraded...  Guess the museum will have to put up with them being dirty - though I suppose they're bloomin' lucky they're getting them preserved at all.
 

Wild Goose Chase Time...

It was a lovely day to be out on site.  I can't say I was looking forward to it (you can get too much of a good thing) but I was resigned to spending a day in the great outdoors.

Traffic was dreadful, so I arrived slightly late, to find myself confronting a hurrendous gooey mess.  They'd already carried out the turf-stripping, which although not ideal, was agreed with the curators, and very little damage to the topsoil and subsoil was done, so everything was hunky-dory.

They asked me then where I wanted to put my trenches.  So I pointed out that my trenches were in effect, their trenches.  We'd be digging in the same places. 

They looked crestfallen.  There were slippages on the job and they weren't yet ready to dig their trenches.  They'd kind of hoped to put me off, but someone hadn't informed us that there'd been a delay.  I hung around and took some photos, which wasn't nice as the entire site (the size of a football field) is now covered with disgusting slippery gloop that congeals onto your boots so you're left with big mud-balls on your feet which have to be carved off with a trowel.  Every time I meet that kind of goo, my heart goes out to the poor lads in the trenches in the First World War, because their miserable lives must have been full of it.

Ah well.  It was all for nothing.  And there's my poor car, with its chipped windscreen, having to drive here there and everywhere for nothing, AND it's jeopardised my revised windscreen repair next week.  AAARGH!!!!

Went back to the office via Kilwinning, and paid a visit to the Dig team.  I was shown some real archaeology and my colleagues and the volunteers showed off their awfully nice trowelling and some awfully nice walls that they'd uncovered, and teased me about the fact that I came onto site wearing a hard hat (I was checking out the Main Street) and generally being 'commercial'.

Then I went back to the office and did the hoovering, and at that point, I really did begin to feel like Cinderella!!

Oh, on the plus side!  I've tried cleaning up some of the plaster-of-paris moulds that got dug up on the pottery site we were digging, and they're fine!  They've survived really well, though cleaning them up is proving rather difficult.  If you brush them too hard, the plaster gets abraded...  Guess the museum will have to put up with them being dirty - though I suppose they're bloomin' lucky they're getting them preserved at all.
 

It's Not Raining!!

To celebrate the fact that the sun is shining, I thought I'd post some garden pictures.

First of all, our one and only penstemmon plant. The only reason why we have this is because my intrepid husband decided he was going to have an adventure in propation, and take cuttings last year.  It's just as well he did, as the parent's now dead.  But the baby is alive and kicking, and flowering nicely:-

The gladioli that came free with the Daily Mail are blooming merrily, and looking marvellous!


 

Like I've said before, least the Daily Mail is good for something!!

And lastly, the 'Blue' Flowerbed in the back garden.  The Lillium Stargazer is in bloom - I shoved it here because I couldn't think of anywhere else to put it, and the gamble paid off.  The hydrangea is also looking good...
 

 

And that's that.  The buddlheia in the front garden is in bloom, and there's still no butterflies, apart from the Large Whites, which are better than nothing, I suppose.  The lack of Peacocks, Red Admirals, etc. is disturbing.  There's been a steady decline over the last few years, and this year, there's been nothing at all.

And the tame blackbird's been AWOL for two weeks now.  Not so much as a chirp, so I'm beginning to fear the worst...

It's Not Raining!!

To celebrate the fact that the sun is shining, I thought I'd post some garden pictures.

First of all, our one and only penstemmon plant. The only reason why we have this is because my intrepid husband decided he was going to have an adventure in propation, and take cuttings last year.  It's just as well he did, as the parent's now dead.  But the baby is alive and kicking, and flowering nicely:-

The gladioli that came free with the Daily Mail are blooming merrily, and looking marvellous!


 

Like I've said before, least the Daily Mail is good for something!!

And lastly, the 'Blue' Flowerbed in the back garden.  The Lillium Stargazer is in bloom - I shoved it here because I couldn't think of anywhere else to put it, and the gamble paid off.  The hydrangea is also looking good...
 

 

And that's that.  The buddlheia in the front garden is in bloom, and there's still no butterflies, apart from the Large Whites, which are better than nothing, I suppose.  The lack of Peacocks, Red Admirals, etc. is disturbing.  There's been a steady decline over the last few years, and this year, there's been nothing at all.

And the tame blackbird's been AWOL for two weeks now.  Not so much as a chirp, so I'm beginning to fear the worst...