January routines

It was very cold here in Glasgow. Daytime temperatures are hovering around freezing, with the nights being colder. Bingham’s Pond is frozen over, with the exception of small section where the ducks have taken refuge.

I survived my first week back at work. I am behind with developing a new course which starts in six weeks and I made sure to get cracking with this. Although I am guided by paedagogy and best practice of course design, I find that in the end, my lectures grow organically and I can’t rush this process. Most of my learning weeks are structured around a lecture, which forms the basis for more active learning activities. I had to spend a bit of time on updating a course that I didn’t expect to run. Alas, I will, for a grand total of two students. I finished the week by scheduling welcome messages and guidance messages for the first week of learning.

Sam recently rebuilt Annie’s old laptop for the teens to share. This means they no longer use our prehistoric desktop computer, which makes me very happy because it is in my office/sewing room, taking up space on a small desk. I thought I might setup my overlocker there but for now, my microscope is taking pride of place. I have to clean and our collection of parasite diagnostic slides before the next microscopy training course in April. If the microscope is ready to use, I am more likely to do it. The slides by the way are fixed and stained and are not a health and safety hazard. If you are wondering why my work microscope is at home, it is because I don’t have a permanent office space. I don’t mind hot-desking in principle but this is not compatible with having a microscope. It doesn’t fit in the tiny locker we each have now for personal belongings. If I want or need  to work on campus, I prefer to sit in the social space in a different building. Our new campus development is mixed use, the new research and teaching buildings all have public social spaces, which is wonderful for the community. There is for example a group of local women regularly using my favourite social space for crochet and chatting, just delightful. I mean that! I don’t feel distracted, it is quite relaxing to work in a vibrant community space. Such is life as a Senior Lecturer at a Russell Group University. 

This week finally, my Saturday eco-conservation volunteering group went out again. I layered up for a day in the frozen woods and packed a thermos with sweet peppermint tea. We were thinning out beech regrowth, which is taking up growing space between mixed species trees that were planted some ten years ago. We removed many plastic tree guards still in place. Some were almost fused with the now quite chunky trunks. We found many half buried in the ground, too. The lack of maintenance is not uncommon after tree plantings. I don’t know who was responsible for those trees but they clearly never came back. Our volunteering group has now been asked to do this. I also did a bit of litter picking. Mainly frozen filled poo bags and coffee cups, and empty beer cans. It was good to be out again. My upper body feels a bit stiff now (on Sunday) because of the workout I gave it. 

Anyway, nothing exciting happening here. I shall pop out for a walk, then take some measurements for a pair of jeans I want to sew. Happy days. Thank you for visiting 😊.