Wending our way

An icy bright day and we decided on one of our favourite local walks, through the city orchard and along the canal to the Water Witch for Sunday lunch.

Oh yes ... and the Christmas tree is now up!

Floating through the internet ether

Another week of transcription and once again my head is full of other people's words.  In procrastination mode I have taken a bit of a wander. It started with reading a review of a book about scientists and their tattoos. Having an interest in biology and maths, this led me to consider what I might choose were I brave/foolhardy enough to get a tattoo. 

 I have found that declaring myself as being interested in, and actually ENJOYING maths often results in glazed looks which at best are of puzzlement, or at worst looks of undisguised horror. So, to have an equation leaping off various parts of my anatomy would perhaps not be such a good idea as it would advertise my seemingly strange love of numbers and maths quirkiness to all and sundry.

So, a combination of both biology and maths would seem to be the solution and this took me on an internet journey to find some connections. 

Barnsley's Fern

Barnsley's Fern seemed a good starting off point, a fractal fern the mathematician Michael Barnsley developed which resembles  Black Spleenwort. The beauty of ferns, fractals and maths all in one go!

Black spleenwort

But then I got caught up in Wolfram and found:

lobster polyiamond

flower snark

caterpillar

centipede graphs

banana graphs

daisy spirals

House renovation

Two weeks ago a new boiler and radiators were installed, this week it's been windows and patio doors

Time on our hands

It was suggested that A Start Must Be Made, so we wended our way first to the local brewery for lunch; our excuse was that the Lancaster brewed beer would make good Christmas presents. Bargains were to be had, and  enough beer was bought so that we could do some consumer testing to ensure that it tasted good. The bulk of it has been put in the shed in the hope that it will not go the same way as the chocolates I used to buy for the children's Christmas stockings. Said chocolate had to be bought several times over before it actually made it to Christmas Eve.

From there a photographic foray into the nearby antiques market; another plethora of delight before the buying of the Christmas tree.

 Far too early in my opinion, but considering that last year's search entailed a 100 mile round trip to find what seemed like the last Christmas tree in the land it was deemed necessary that we should plan earlier this year. So, a tree was chosen and again dispatched to the shed (with the beer) until a more sensible time for putting it up i.e. Christmas Eve!



Sunday, and another photographic wander into town and to a lovely little coffee shop we've just discovered. Coffee and cakes set us up for the battle of the Christmas shopping madness.

The comfortable chairs set me to looking for Australian coffee

An avalanche of words

Things have been hectic and so I've not had the chance to post for a while. It’s not that I haven’t been typing; the reality is that thousands of words have travelled from my keyboard to screen in the last week. Not my words alas, but those transcribed from recordings of interviews, seminars and lectures that I have been typing up for work. So, my head is awash with snippets from other people’s lives, opinions and lively, enthusiastic discussion from the seminar room and, in addition, I've learnt about the intricacies of  Much ado about nothing.