Right I managed to remember my password for this thing so for all intents and purposes I’m back! Expect a regular update at least every Monday!
Second year is a bit of a culture shock, things actually count and my 9 hours a week contact time really does need to be backed up by 20 hours plus reading a week. On related news I think my dissertation topic will be on Mesolithic Scotland, possibly on settlement patterns but we will see.
A quick one as a start as the trip report covers most of the weekend. Until next Monday!
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Second Year
To the Lakes!
And so it became time to run the first weekend trip of the term. It was meant to happen a week previous but an unfortunate series of events including the blowing of a head gasket on a car and some very questionable meatball subs rather torpedoed the entire trip. So it was with great confidence that an intrepid band of Ben Lairigers assembled at the James college (that still feels so wrong) bench. This confidence was quickly evaporated when the captain was late to show up, it was apparent that Rob was in charge of all the money for the weekend and that the freshers were being entrusted to Carrig, Andrew and Rob....
Eleanor arrived eventually and the cars were packed to their absolute capacity just as the heavens opened. And open they stayed from York all the way to Langdale. As the fog came down the pace slowed and some members of the club found themselves on the wrong side of Scotch corner looking for a petrol station that only exists in fantasy. While this was going on the other group were cruising round Keswick, drinking beer and getting in trouble with the local Bobby! We all regrouped in Keswick and headed deep into the Lakes as the weather continued to hammer it down. There was a moment of uncanny good luck as the rain held off just long enough for the tents to be assembled, even if the Boltoro did make a bid for freedom a couple of times. At 1 in the morning our heroic drivers left for the comfort and warmth of Adam’s house and on realising the pub was likely to be shut the rest of the club went to sleep, praying that the tents would hold.
Morning came all too quickly and all too wet, with no cars to shelter in from the weather the quickest morning start the club has experienced in recent memory came about. I’m not normally one to complain but the weather really was filthy and it was decided that the easiest thing to do would be to climb Pike O' Blisco as it “was a good climb” “we’d done it before” and “if we want to there’s other things to do from it”. In the face of absolutely no opposition whatsoever we set off at about 9.20.
One thing that no one had taken into account is what all that rain would have done to all the little streams on Pike O' Blisco. There were some very very wet feet by the time we were half way up the mountain. However spirits were high and everyone seemed to be enjoying the great outdoors. Making a good pace we summited the mountain just as the rain backed off, and the mist set in. With some semi-competent navving and once we realised it was probably just easier to Listen to Andrew we made our way down to Red Tarn. At this point the group split up with two brave souls determined to bag another peak while the more sensible contingent realised they could probably make it to the pub for a late lunch.
As the group pulled into the campsite wet but happy our illustrious captain pulled up with news of Hospitality form Adam and his dad. No one was keen to try and dry off in the tents so the offer was took up with little fuss and a lot of gratitude. A refund was extracted from the campsite with very little fuss and we broke camp and headed back to Keswick to pick up some Whiskey as ‘accommodation fee’s’ and a thank you to our hosts.
And so came about the most pleasant night’s sleep on a Ben Lairig trip possibly ever. It was warm and dry and the company was good and we all watched Zoolander and Red Dwarf in our sleeping bags in front of a roaring fire. If this was manning down I don’t think I care! The next morning we were understandably a bit slower to move, reluctant to leave our warm sleeping bags and the comfort of an actual house. However the weather was considerably better and an ambitious plan was hatched to walk across the northern fells in a point to point walk. Just as we got out the cars the heavens opened, which to be honest is pretty typical by this point but we marched on and hacked up Carrock Fell in short order, then it was on to the Lingy Hill hut for lunch before heading on to bag Knott and Great Calva. As we came off the hills it was beginning to get a bit dark, this was 5 and half hours and 13 miles later. As it got darker and darker head torches came out and the whistling began. We rolled into Threlkeld a little before 6 and had a couple of pints while the cars were collected. Then it was onto Adam’s house to pack up and say our goodbyes before heading home to York via Penrith for a takeaway and all over the shop for road works.
Sunday, 5 July 2009
End o'term
I’ve really been remiss in keeping you up to date with what I’ve been up to/will be up to. As I move out tomorrow, or later today as it is 1.30am as I write this and thus lose my internet for at least the next week this seems like a good a time as any for an update.
The short version and reason for my general lack of contact is the new job, its actually quite good fun but is also totally chaotic and has me working a lot of hours. Today for example there was just 5 staff in for my whole shift and only 3 of us for the last 2 hours. And I mean in the whole store, not even just 3 guys on checkout. Nope there was just me on checkout, running the kiosk as well! Not bad for 2 weeks on the job!
As I mentioned before we are moving out of C Block tomorrow, and I spent the first part of today before work alternating between helping Sophy pack up her room and stopping her crying. To be honest saying goodbye to all my mates who are graduating this year sucked. I basically spent the week with the guys from Ben Lairig; we went to the summer ball as well as the end of campus party before ending the week with a quiet drink in the Rook, our old haunt. I’ll miss those guys and as much as things will be great the next two years won’t be the same as this one.
Tuesday was the last Archaeology social of the year. People descended on the Kings Manor in fancy dress. I went as a Roman solider and partied the night away till 3 in the morning. Actually this whole last week has seen me get about 20 hours sleep since Tuesday morning, but then that’s the end of term for you.
Now a long summer stretches out in front of me. It’s off to Charfield for a beer festival next Friday then Portugal in August as well as lots of shifts at the store.
I know this is a bit sporadic and reading it back everything is out of order but I’m sitting in a bare room surrounded by boxes feeling a little bit blue so I hope that it can be forgiven. So here it is, my last piece of correspondence from C Block
Rob Signing off!
The short version and reason for my general lack of contact is the new job, its actually quite good fun but is also totally chaotic and has me working a lot of hours. Today for example there was just 5 staff in for my whole shift and only 3 of us for the last 2 hours. And I mean in the whole store, not even just 3 guys on checkout. Nope there was just me on checkout, running the kiosk as well! Not bad for 2 weeks on the job!
As I mentioned before we are moving out of C Block tomorrow, and I spent the first part of today before work alternating between helping Sophy pack up her room and stopping her crying. To be honest saying goodbye to all my mates who are graduating this year sucked. I basically spent the week with the guys from Ben Lairig; we went to the summer ball as well as the end of campus party before ending the week with a quiet drink in the Rook, our old haunt. I’ll miss those guys and as much as things will be great the next two years won’t be the same as this one.
Tuesday was the last Archaeology social of the year. People descended on the Kings Manor in fancy dress. I went as a Roman solider and partied the night away till 3 in the morning. Actually this whole last week has seen me get about 20 hours sleep since Tuesday morning, but then that’s the end of term for you.
Now a long summer stretches out in front of me. It’s off to Charfield for a beer festival next Friday then Portugal in August as well as lots of shifts at the store.
I know this is a bit sporadic and reading it back everything is out of order but I’m sitting in a bare room surrounded by boxes feeling a little bit blue so I hope that it can be forgiven. So here it is, my last piece of correspondence from C Block
Rob Signing off!
Monday, 8 June 2009
A trip t' the Lakes!
This trip turned out to not really involve backpacking but was fun non-the-less, but more on that later! With much joy members of Ben Lairig descended on Eskdale with the idea of walking a few mountains and then sampling some Ale at the Boot beer festival. The idea was to backpack our way from Wynrose pass and wild camp after the event with Sundays walk depending on numerous factors not in the least how hung-over everyone was feeling.
Of course this being the first trip that the new committee was fully in charge of, fate had different plans. The trip up was pretty eventfull for some of us and the long and the short of it was that one car arrived about an hour after the other. This was particularly distressing as not only had we navigated Hard-Knott pass twice with no real cause we had also missed out on seeing ‘some chavs’ do doughnuts in the car park. With the night closing in, the weather set to turn and no one actually that keen it was decided to abandon the backpacking aprt of the trip, a plan that turned out to probably be a very good idea.
Camp was set up and tinnies were drunk. 4 members of the club had decided that tents were a hassle for this kind of trip and that bivving was the way to go, this was possibly a mistake when it started to rain heavily especially as I had bet Bance twenty pence that it wouldn’t. The rain continued in the morning which really slowed everyone’s movements as well as dampening their spirits (and everything else as well)
When it became apparent that the rain just wasn’t going to stop it was decided to just ‘Man Through’ and walk
We ascended Grey Friar with not a huge amount of joy and I quickly fobbed off any suggestion of me navigating, citing the fact that the day could already be hard enough without us getting lost in the bargin as well, Great Carrs and Swirl How were bagged in short order before we stopped for what has to have been one of the quickest and most uncomfortable lunch breaks I have ever had. Be now everyone seemed to have been struck by a strong sense of ‘how much more wet can we get’ and the route continued to have tops added to it.
Brim Fell was decided on and then Coniston Old Man as it was so close before finally Dow Crag rounded out the set. As we came off down towards the tarn the weather finally took pity on us and we had a quick much more pleasant second lunch in the sun before setting off the wrong way round the tarn and back to the car.
People continued to dry out in the wind back at the cars as we settled down to eat a quick dinner, the slop that Carrig and I prepared may have filled a whole but looked like it had already been eaten more than once. After varying degrees of sustenance we headed off to the main (for me at least) event, the beer festival.
We dumped the cars by a secluded spot and then headed on to the first pub, which while it was pretty rammed had a fair selection of beers on and space outside. After a couple there the coldness and the general slog of the day had set in so we moved onto the second pub in the actual village it’s self. I’ll be honest my memory gets hazy surprisingly fast but I remember this, it was warm and dry and had some very good beer on. After drinking our fill and beyond we were kicked out at 1.45 and set up for what was probably a very good night’s sleep in t’ outdoors. Not that I remember it, at all…. But it didn’t rain and the weather was clear when we awoke, this was good, we could get a good walk in and I no longer owed 20p to a certain former captain. After suddenly being struck by a sudden case of common sense Carrig and me headed off down the road were he managed to charm the local landlady into cooking breakfast for them. We rejoined the rest of the club and set off to the base of Harter Fell. Everyone must have been very hung-over or still drunk as it fell to me to navigate, which I did ok at with only one or two extra bits and more bog walking than was possibly needed.
Harter Fell was summited with a bit of scrambling and then we lunched and then headed towards Green Crag which we climbed up the side as opposed to the long path round before hacking straight down to the car and home!
All in all it was a great trip even in the face of adversity thanks to Ben Lairig’s ability to Man Up, some bloody good beer and good times!
Of course this being the first trip that the new committee was fully in charge of, fate had different plans. The trip up was pretty eventfull for some of us and the long and the short of it was that one car arrived about an hour after the other. This was particularly distressing as not only had we navigated Hard-Knott pass twice with no real cause we had also missed out on seeing ‘some chavs’ do doughnuts in the car park. With the night closing in, the weather set to turn and no one actually that keen it was decided to abandon the backpacking aprt of the trip, a plan that turned out to probably be a very good idea.
Camp was set up and tinnies were drunk. 4 members of the club had decided that tents were a hassle for this kind of trip and that bivving was the way to go, this was possibly a mistake when it started to rain heavily especially as I had bet Bance twenty pence that it wouldn’t. The rain continued in the morning which really slowed everyone’s movements as well as dampening their spirits (and everything else as well)
When it became apparent that the rain just wasn’t going to stop it was decided to just ‘Man Through’ and walk
We ascended Grey Friar with not a huge amount of joy and I quickly fobbed off any suggestion of me navigating, citing the fact that the day could already be hard enough without us getting lost in the bargin as well, Great Carrs and Swirl How were bagged in short order before we stopped for what has to have been one of the quickest and most uncomfortable lunch breaks I have ever had. Be now everyone seemed to have been struck by a strong sense of ‘how much more wet can we get’ and the route continued to have tops added to it.
Brim Fell was decided on and then Coniston Old Man as it was so close before finally Dow Crag rounded out the set. As we came off down towards the tarn the weather finally took pity on us and we had a quick much more pleasant second lunch in the sun before setting off the wrong way round the tarn and back to the car.
People continued to dry out in the wind back at the cars as we settled down to eat a quick dinner, the slop that Carrig and I prepared may have filled a whole but looked like it had already been eaten more than once. After varying degrees of sustenance we headed off to the main (for me at least) event, the beer festival.
We dumped the cars by a secluded spot and then headed on to the first pub, which while it was pretty rammed had a fair selection of beers on and space outside. After a couple there the coldness and the general slog of the day had set in so we moved onto the second pub in the actual village it’s self. I’ll be honest my memory gets hazy surprisingly fast but I remember this, it was warm and dry and had some very good beer on. After drinking our fill and beyond we were kicked out at 1.45 and set up for what was probably a very good night’s sleep in t’ outdoors. Not that I remember it, at all…. But it didn’t rain and the weather was clear when we awoke, this was good, we could get a good walk in and I no longer owed 20p to a certain former captain. After suddenly being struck by a sudden case of common sense Carrig and me headed off down the road were he managed to charm the local landlady into cooking breakfast for them. We rejoined the rest of the club and set off to the base of Harter Fell. Everyone must have been very hung-over or still drunk as it fell to me to navigate, which I did ok at with only one or two extra bits and more bog walking than was possibly needed.
Harter Fell was summited with a bit of scrambling and then we lunched and then headed towards Green Crag which we climbed up the side as opposed to the long path round before hacking straight down to the car and home!
All in all it was a great trip even in the face of adversity thanks to Ben Lairig’s ability to Man Up, some bloody good beer and good times!
Friday, 29 May 2009
Another busy week
Firstly I might as well give you my latest extract of field diary. You might notice that it’s a bit lazy and that’s because I really am rather knackered after such a long week!
Week 2 Field Diary
Things are going really well on site; we have shifted through the top soil and have reached things that could actually be called archaeological. I have made a pretty good find and the rest of my group have found 4 cobbled standings that could actually be the standing for a small building. All of this happened in the last two days of this week, the first two days being important but quite monotonous clearings of top soil.
I have been working in the very corner of my trench, pretty much on my own remit as Alex has let me dig a trench through the topsoil to see what was going on in it. At the very end of it in the corner there is some kind of pit that seems to be full of roman rubbish but time will have to tell on what it is exactly and how big/deep it is as all we managed to do on Friday was shift the top soil once it was decided that it was all pretty worthless. This took the whole day but by the end of it we can see some features and interactions in the soil.
Right, on a social aspect things are ticking along nicely, I had my first social as Social Sec on Wednesday and it was a really big success. Everyone had a great time and more importantly told me that it was as good as they expected it to be!
People are also on board with my plans for the rest of the term so that’s good. I might add some more to this later on in the weekend but its very very hot here and I have had a very busy week!
Week 2 Field Diary
Things are going really well on site; we have shifted through the top soil and have reached things that could actually be called archaeological. I have made a pretty good find and the rest of my group have found 4 cobbled standings that could actually be the standing for a small building. All of this happened in the last two days of this week, the first two days being important but quite monotonous clearings of top soil.
I have been working in the very corner of my trench, pretty much on my own remit as Alex has let me dig a trench through the topsoil to see what was going on in it. At the very end of it in the corner there is some kind of pit that seems to be full of roman rubbish but time will have to tell on what it is exactly and how big/deep it is as all we managed to do on Friday was shift the top soil once it was decided that it was all pretty worthless. This took the whole day but by the end of it we can see some features and interactions in the soil.
Right, on a social aspect things are ticking along nicely, I had my first social as Social Sec on Wednesday and it was a really big success. Everyone had a great time and more importantly told me that it was as good as they expected it to be!
People are also on board with my plans for the rest of the term so that’s good. I might add some more to this later on in the weekend but its very very hot here and I have had a very busy week!
Saturday, 23 May 2009
A busy week!
Updates
Gosh, what a week it has been! It really doesn’t feel like that long since my last update to you guys but looking back I have been so busy and a lot has happened to me so I guess it’s just best to jump in and update on what’s been going on!
Field work wise things have been quite hard going but very rewarding. There’s nothing quite like going to bed at the end of a long day of hard physical work, nor the end of a week were you feel that you have accomplished quite a lot.
On day one we were briefed on general site safety, procedure and practice and got stuck into getting some of the topsoil out of our trench, not a lot was ‘found’ in he typical sense of the first day but I felt it was valuable non the less to get my eye in to seeing the difference in soil levels (which is difficult) and to spot finds in the earth (which can be frustrating) The first day ended with me feeling muddy and sore but with a real sense of what archaeology was about.
Tuesday morning however I felt awful! I was sore all over and was still exhausted from the day before. Despite this I actually learnt a lot more and also got a lot deeper through the loam towards the sub soil and the actual finds. On that front today I found a piece of worked bronze, possibly an old broken broach as well as a fair bit of bone and Samian ware, however I did not feel that we were finding as much as we could that day compared to the other group working in our trench, possibly due to the fact that we were slightly above them in relation to finding the top of the sub soil. Unfortunately we were rained off by about 2 ‘o’ clock that day menai9ng we could not finish our drag bit of the top soil
Wednesday was a field trip which was informative and interesting however if I am totally honest I was not at my best that day as the coach journey was enough to lull me both into lethargy and then sleep due to the strenuousness of the two days before.
However the evening of that day was important for a totally non archaeological reason. It was Ben Lairig election nights. I won’t bore you with a blow buy blow (and to be honest I don’t remember it all at all) but the long and the short of it is that I am now the Social Sec for Ben Lairig! This couple with me being general Secretary for the new movie society I founded this year means I will be very busy socially next year!
Thursday was a shame and a washout as we were sent home at 11 due to torrential rain having only scraped back about half of what we needed to do.
Friday was a good day in all although my actual personal number of finds was close to none, enough that my section was checked about 3 times by varying members of the department before it was classed as ‘just empty’. That coupled with the fact that it was about a foot and a half above the beginnings of the sub soil and well above the rest of the trench meant that by the end of the day I was learned to dig a sub trench through it to see what it did.
In the interest of full disclosure I was very tired and possibly a bit disillusioned by this point so it was not the straightest piece in the world but I will tidy it up on Monday and also have shifted about half of it. Although today not the most inspiring day of my dig I feel it was the most important as I feel that I now know I could do this, even when it is frustrating!
So a busy but great week for me, one that I feel I might have grown and learnt more than any other apart from maybe my first week at York!
Gosh, what a week it has been! It really doesn’t feel like that long since my last update to you guys but looking back I have been so busy and a lot has happened to me so I guess it’s just best to jump in and update on what’s been going on!
Field work wise things have been quite hard going but very rewarding. There’s nothing quite like going to bed at the end of a long day of hard physical work, nor the end of a week were you feel that you have accomplished quite a lot.
On day one we were briefed on general site safety, procedure and practice and got stuck into getting some of the topsoil out of our trench, not a lot was ‘found’ in he typical sense of the first day but I felt it was valuable non the less to get my eye in to seeing the difference in soil levels (which is difficult) and to spot finds in the earth (which can be frustrating) The first day ended with me feeling muddy and sore but with a real sense of what archaeology was about.
Tuesday morning however I felt awful! I was sore all over and was still exhausted from the day before. Despite this I actually learnt a lot more and also got a lot deeper through the loam towards the sub soil and the actual finds. On that front today I found a piece of worked bronze, possibly an old broken broach as well as a fair bit of bone and Samian ware, however I did not feel that we were finding as much as we could that day compared to the other group working in our trench, possibly due to the fact that we were slightly above them in relation to finding the top of the sub soil. Unfortunately we were rained off by about 2 ‘o’ clock that day menai9ng we could not finish our drag bit of the top soil
Wednesday was a field trip which was informative and interesting however if I am totally honest I was not at my best that day as the coach journey was enough to lull me both into lethargy and then sleep due to the strenuousness of the two days before.
However the evening of that day was important for a totally non archaeological reason. It was Ben Lairig election nights. I won’t bore you with a blow buy blow (and to be honest I don’t remember it all at all) but the long and the short of it is that I am now the Social Sec for Ben Lairig! This couple with me being general Secretary for the new movie society I founded this year means I will be very busy socially next year!
Thursday was a shame and a washout as we were sent home at 11 due to torrential rain having only scraped back about half of what we needed to do.
Friday was a good day in all although my actual personal number of finds was close to none, enough that my section was checked about 3 times by varying members of the department before it was classed as ‘just empty’. That coupled with the fact that it was about a foot and a half above the beginnings of the sub soil and well above the rest of the trench meant that by the end of the day I was learned to dig a sub trench through it to see what it did.
In the interest of full disclosure I was very tired and possibly a bit disillusioned by this point so it was not the straightest piece in the world but I will tidy it up on Monday and also have shifted about half of it. Although today not the most inspiring day of my dig I feel it was the most important as I feel that I now know I could do this, even when it is frustrating!
So a busy but great week for me, one that I feel I might have grown and learnt more than any other apart from maybe my first week at York!
Saturday, 16 May 2009
Keep on ticking by!
Socially it’s been a good week as well with two very decent nights out on Wednesday and Thursday, Ben Lairig and Nick’s birthday respectively. It was nice to relax after some hard days work and both nights were just what I needed.
I also saw the Star Trek film on Wednesday as well. It was a good film even if I don’t really know my phasers from my photons!
A quiet weekend lays ahead before 3 weeks of excavation proper.
Sorry for the 3 posts when one would ahve done but as the blog originaly posted itself 4 times it was easier to edit it into 4!
I also saw the Star Trek film on Wednesday as well. It was a good film even if I don’t really know my phasers from my photons!
A quiet weekend lays ahead before 3 weeks of excavation proper.
Sorry for the 3 posts when one would ahve done but as the blog originaly posted itself 4 times it was easier to edit it into 4!
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