The joys (or otherwise) of note taking

Yesterday I made the mistake of assuming that Frankland Coll and Frankland Lecture Theatre were one and the same place. I dutifully went to what I thought was the right venue and made assiduous notes on assembly language and computing. Bits, bytes and nibbles (!) flowed from my pen as I attempted to get to grips with Forever Loops and Jump Format, hex, dec and binary forms.

As I came out of the lecture I checked my phone ..... there had been a text about 5 minutes into the lecture from the student I was taking the notes for, to tell me that I was In The Wrong Room. Mortification! Not only that, I had suffered sitting through a not altogether (for me at least) enlightening lecture, taking notes that were of no use to anyone, unless I have happened on a new pastime - random note taking. I wonder if it could take off?

This and that

Hmmm, it's just as well I hadn't New Year's resolutioned that I would be more proactive with this blog. However, I have set up a blog Micromeandering which will highlight some of the microscopy I am hoping to do.

Time already seems to be flying in. Term started last week with a rude awakening; a new student, and four consecutive hours of three lectures of physics and one of engineering, and a 9am start to boot. Each of the four days I am in starts at 9, which means getting the bus at 8, and me not the most early morning oriented.

We have decided that after the Christmas over-indulgences we must Try And Reduce Intake. Yesterday was the end of  the best stage in this regimen i.e. the EATING of all the scrummy things that we still had that were not conducive to weight loss. Our logic is that once these have disappeared, there will be no temptation. I was discussing this method with younger daughter and she wasn't overly impressed with our system.

Not much snow here but much of the country seems to be grinding to a halt with the cold weather and snowfall. News has been rife with the notions of "sub zero temperatures" and "centimetres of snow", how is it that other countries can cope without all this hype? I suppose I am just in grumpy old woman mode.... Luckily we have had little more than a smattering of the white stuff, though I did have a rather unpleasant snowy journey back from my mother's last weekend.

Yesterday was cold but having layered up into Nanook of the North lookalikes we braved the elements to go to Leighton Moss. The birds had had more sense, and few were about. It did mean however that we were able to identify ALL the birds we saw (the grand total of three - robin, oyster catcher and crow).

The water at Leighton Moss was frozen and the only birds in view from the hide we went into were a couple of crows. The didn't seem to mind wading around in icy water and their behaviour seemed quite strange, almost as if they were trying to have a bath.

We then went into nearby Silverdale for a welcome hot coffee and soup and then a wander along the shore. On our way there I saw my first snowdrops of the year. When I lived in Scotland we always looked for the first snowdrops about now, they always seemed to come out round about my ex mother in law's birthday on the 21st.

Then back home to the warmth and a bird themed  jigsaw, not difficult but very satisfying.

Can spring be in the air?

Wonderful! a pair of bullfinches are near the garden. The weather is so dire and grey that it was well nigh impossible to get an even half decent picture.  The female was further along the fence acting coy in the overhanging brambles.

Photography foray

For a mere £1.50 we escaped the dire and dreich weather and visited our  local antiques centre. The huge space is shared between dealers who set out their arrays of multifarious items; a whole confusion of stock, some antique, some purporting to be antique, and then there is the completely baffling.