Christmas Korknisse

Autumn is here and my thoughts have turned to Christmas, and what I can make for friends and family this year. Last year I experimented with some Korknisse – cork elves – and this year I wanted to improve on my design and make them into Xmas tree decorations. img_1356

So I bought some red and green yarn, and found tiny bells and googly eyes on the internet. I already had gold thread in my stash to make the hanging loop with – I think this might have been from Granny Sarah’s stash as it is a very old bobbin.

Today, as I was coding data for my PhD, I made my first one – now all I need to do is glue the hat and sweater on and it will be finished.

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Season of mists

It’s a misty morning again today, and I am sitting here in my cozy study looking out over the garden settling into autumn, with the rowan from next door heavy with red berries, and our resident squirrel bounding across its branches. Our huge sage bush glistens in the morning light:

Sage

We have a very industrious spider – or maybe there is more than one – with webs spun all over the sage bush:

Trap

and all over the washing line:

Webs

Autumn webs

The virginia creeper is my pride and joy:

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And this plant (what is it  – I used to know) thrusts its berries out to tempt the birds:

Berries

A nasturtium leaf gleams with dew:

Glisten

Autumn is here, and it is time to start putting the garden to bed for another year.

 

 

 

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Old books I would not want to be without

The Daily Create yesterday was bizarre:

There are only 3 tweets with this hashtag on Twitter. We found it via @mr45144 and we would love to add some love to #OldBooksIDareNotPartWith today.

Find a book you dare not part with, take a photo, tell us why!

Dare not part with? Dare not? What an odd choice of words. It doesn’t surprise me that there were so few tweets to that hashtag. There’s lots of books I love having as possessions, many more I loved reading, plenty I would not like to be without. But it’s not a matter of being bold or craven. So here’s some books which define me – ones I pick up over and over again – either virtually or actually:

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My Chambers dictionary – because etymology is interesting, and cryptic crosswords are good things to do. D&G’s ATP and Wittgenstein PI – two books that are never far from my thoughts. Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, because my study is a place I can sometimes lose myself in my thoughts and my writing. And EZ’s Knitter’s Almanac, because she gives me confidence to experiment.

Posted in D&G, DailyCreate, DS106, Philosophy, Reading, Wittgenstein | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

RSPB Scotland Loch Lomond

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We had a day off today, and the weather was at least dry (in the morning), so N and I decided to head out to the RSPB Nature Reserve at Gartocharn – a fairly new reserve that we pass on the way to Ross Priory. The Visitor Hub was shut, as it’s only open at the weekends, but N and I were hoping that we could still wander around the paths. It was quickly obvious that we could not do that, as the paths do not exist yet – we’ll have to go back at a weekend and walk around with a guide.

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It was still a stunning site, though – with beautiful views:

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And lots of coal tits on the feeders. I got  a lot of pics of “where a coal tit was until I pressed the shutter”,  as they move so fast, and a few good ones, like this coal tit perched on top of a feeder:

Coal tit

And, as we turned to go back to the car, I noticed signs that Autumn is on the way:

Autumn

 

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5 Secrets about DS106

portent

Today’s Daily Create is to:

Use the Portent Title Generator to randomly generate a title about DS106…then WRITE THAT POST!

So here’s mine:

5 Secrets about DS106 the government is hiding:

  1. It’s free. Take that, government capitalist pig dogs.
  2. It’s fun. Yes, fun! We drones are allowed respite from our toil.
  3. It’s real learning. Not like that rote stuff the government pretend is education.
  4. It’s collaborative. As we riff off each other, we learn more and more.
  5. It has nothing to do with the moon landings.  Or maybe it does …
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Blah

It’s been a fairly awful week. It should have been a restful week’s holiday around the house forgetting about work, but instead it was a stressful period that’s still not over. So Kim’s weekly challenge this week is particularly apt: Fighting the Blahs. On Wednesday, determined to salvage at least a couple of days peace, Niall and I headed up to Ross Priory for lunch. It was an overcast day, with the clouds down over the hills as we looked over Loch Lomond:

Loch Lomond from Ross Priory

But this is always one of our favourite places, with such a beautiful house:

Ross Priory

A gate with no fence or wall around it:

The gate to nowhere

A walled garden with a sundial:

THe Walled Garden

Without any sun this is not much use:

Sun Dial

And lots of flowers with hoverflies and bees:

Symbiosis

So I could practice using my camera in macro mode:

Just visiting

And a final puzzle – what use is this here?

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As we wandered around we spotted some brambles – so we popped back yesterday to pick some. Next: bramble and apple jam making 🙂

 

Posted in #CLMOOC, Photos, Scotland | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Swans

Down at the pond earlier I was taking a picture of this beautiful swan preening itself:

Preening

when I noticed another swan heading towards it:

STalking

Oh, hello:

Hello

Getting closer:

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I’m off then:

Stalking

Uh oh:

Puffing up

And then the attack:

Chase

At which all of the gulls flew up off the pond

Duck pond

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Looking closely

Kim’s photo challenge this week is to look closely, and – like Kim – I find that getting into the habit of carrying my camera with me is encouraging me to do just that. I’ve been fascinated (even maybe borderline obsessed) with taking close ups of bubbles and ripples recently – not surprising given the climate here in Glasgow. Here’s one I took recently of the fish pond in the Botanics:

Bubbles

and this – using my fish eye setting to photograph some of the ripples over the huge carp:

Lens

As Niall and I went out for a walk the other day I paused in the front garden and took this close up of one of our weeds – a pretty weed, out of place in the lawn:

Little weed

and this ash sapling, trying to grow in a crack on our steps:

Tenacity

Last week I was on a trades union reps training course in our spectacular main building. One lunchtime I played around taking photos through the (very dirty, but very beautiful) window:

Window to the world

This has the flagpole in it – I love, love, love these windows:

Window to the world

Another day and another walk  -this tiny feather caught my eye:

Down

And at Warwick Uni this week, wandering around in the early morning, this moorhen let me get up close and take this pic:

Moorhen

My camera is such a joy to me. On days when the world seems grim I can lose myself for a while as I look through its lens and see beauty around me.

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ALT-C 2016

On Monday I travelled to Warwick Uni for the ALT-C 16 conference, which was taking place in the Warwick Arts Centre:

WarwickUniversity

The main purpose of the visit was to present some thoughts that Maha, Kevin and I had put together:

I think the presentation went well – certainly folk said nice things afterwards, and I think that Maha’s slides about inclusion really gave us something to think about – as I said in the presentation – this is hard stuff to think about  and implement – but it’s important. Some of the slides got into the wrong order and some of the background images do not show in the slideshare, but I managed. I was wearing Susan’s Team Awkward T-Shirt but forgot to ask somebody to take a pic of me. It went down well though.

As usual, I had my camera with me, so late Monday evening I strolled around the tiny campus appreciating all of the art. img_1207

After breakfast the following morning I wandered around again taking more pics:

Ribbons

Circles

Spirals in the grass

There are so many beautiful pieces of art around the campus – I wish I’d taken more pics. But I was glad to get back to Glasgow with it hills and sprawling campus – this is home.

 

Posted in #CLMOOC, #DigiWriMo, #rhizo14, #rhizo15, Conferences, MOOC, Online learning, Photos, Social Media, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Fossil Grove

Fossil tree sculpture

Today we drove down to Victoria Park to visit Fossil Grove, some fossilised Lepidodendron trees discovered in 1887 and preserved in a museum. Inside was very dark, and it was really hard taking any pics.

Fossil grove

Fossil tree stump

Here’s the model showing where the trees are:

Fossil Gove

Back outside, we wandered around the lake, taking pics of the birds – moorhens, coots, swans and gulls:

Moorhen

Coot

Juvenile

Who are you looking at?

As we wandered around, cameras in hand, a local with his wee lad told us that he’d been taking pics of a nesting duck when a gull had swooped down and snatched a chick. He was visibly shocked by it. Here’s a parent on the nest afterwards:

Nest

What do you have #CloseToHome?

 

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