(no subject)

Today was one of those days when it was an absolute pleasure to be working in archaeology.  Though you can bet your bottom dollar that winter hasn't finished with us yet, the conditions today were pleasant, bordering on the blissful.  As I stood outside to finish my external elevation drawings, I basked in sunshine, as the birds sang madly, and the buzzard actually soared on the thermals (the first time since autumn).  A frog was spotted.  A live frog, that is.  Not a dead, mangled one...

We wound up staying out for 5 and a half hours, something which would have been unthinkable a week ago.  I even pondered on the possibility of ditching my thermal top (I have been known to wear it in July...)  But I'm now suffering from my inevitable Thursday evening malady.  I am absolutely shattered.  I feel like a knitted animal that's been run over by a steamroller a few times - crushed flat, with all my stuffing pushed out of place.

Neil Oliver's programme was entertaining and informative, but didn't have anything earth-shatteringly new.  I sat on the edge of my chair as he talked about a Victorian discovery on the Gower Peninsula, muttering "It's the Red Lady of Paviland.  It's the Red Lady of Paviland."  Because, of course, it WAS the Red Lady of Paviland (who's a boy).  But only Neil Oliver could get away with calling him 'The Red Laddie of Paviland'.  Mmm.  It makes the 'Red Lady/Young Gentleman' sound like some Red Clydesider who got lost on the way to the strike at his local shipyard. 

Lots of pretty flint objects, and next week's the Neolithic, which is of course (apologies to all fans of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic) when things start getting interesting.  Because as we all know, things get all the more exciting once we enter the realms of henges, carinated bowls and ancestors...

And tonight, it's back to Simon 'Nodding Dog' Schama for me, for another round of A History of Britain.

(no subject)

Today was one of those days when it was an absolute pleasure to be working in archaeology.  Though you can bet your bottom dollar that winter hasn't finished with us yet, the conditions today were pleasant, bordering on the blissful.  As I stood outside to finish my external elevation drawings, I basked in sunshine, as the birds sang madly, and the buzzard actually soared on the thermals (the first time since autumn).  A frog was spotted.  A live frog, that is.  Not a dead, mangled one...

We wound up staying out for 5 and a half hours, something which would have been unthinkable a week ago.  I even pondered on the possibility of ditching my thermal top (I have been known to wear it in July...)  But I'm now suffering from my inevitable Thursday evening malady.  I am absolutely shattered.  I feel like a knitted animal that's been run over by a steamroller a few times - crushed flat, with all my stuffing pushed out of place.

Neil Oliver's programme was entertaining and informative, but didn't have anything earth-shatteringly new.  I sat on the edge of my chair as he talked about a Victorian discovery on the Gower Peninsula, muttering "It's the Red Lady of Paviland.  It's the Red Lady of Paviland."  Because, of course, it WAS the Red Lady of Paviland (who's a boy).  But only Neil Oliver could get away with calling him 'The Red Laddie of Paviland'.  Mmm.  It makes the 'Red Lady/Young Gentleman' sound like some Red Clydesider who got lost on the way to the strike at his local shipyard. 

Lots of pretty flint objects, and next week's the Neolithic, which is of course (apologies to all fans of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic) when things start getting interesting.  Because as we all know, things get all the more exciting once we enter the realms of henges, carinated bowls and ancestors...

And tonight, it's back to Simon 'Nodding Dog' Schama for me, for another round of A History of Britain.