Midweek Meanderings

This should prove nicely that we grow other things in our bathroom other than disgusting fungi… This rosebush is from a birthday arrangement that T. felt would die, as all others have managed to do. Imagine her surprise when just chucking it on the bathroom windowsill and basically ignoring it meant that it would thrive!

Greetings!

It’s springtime in Glasgow, and between the renewed ash belches from Eyjafjallajökull and the usual eruptions of pollen, we’re a sneezing, sniffling mess. But all is well in our little burg, fortunately, and despite the pollen, we’re glad at least the tulips have finally at long last come into bloom.

We are both relieved to be free of deadlines at the moment, and are back to our usual pace of work. D. is wrestling with the software to break down his survey into readable, useful statistical information, and T. is busy realizing that after one wins an award, one’s opinion is sought by various publications, so is being kept busy writing essays and being interviewed and quoted (latest is in The Horn Book Magazine in conjunction with a rather …unique article about the connection between childrens’ book writers, animal characters, and vegetarianism. She occasionally snickers aloud when reading these things.).

We are having our usual spring bout of insomnia, as the light of the solstice rapidly approaches. The sun now goes down at almost 9 p.m., and rises at five-twenty. (By the end of the month, it will rise at five, and by June, we’ll be well into the four a.m. hour, and it will set well after ten. There is nothing like going to bed and then rising with twitting birds who feel a need to sing at three thirty a.m.) She is growing slightly concerned at the routine volcanic activity which is shutting down air traffic, and has advised her editor and coterie of attendants that her June flight to D.C. for the Coretta Scott King Award Brunch might be somehow compromised. (Sadly, it probably won’t be. But one can hope.) At any rate, summer plans continue apace. As well as D.C., we have been invited to a wedding in Ireland, a wedding in Scotland, and on a trip to Italy, as well as a four-day jaunt to further explore the Highlands. We are looking forward to myriad photographic opportunities – and while we probably won’t return to Italy this soon, we hope to try Spain in the fall.

This week, D. is “invigilating” away, as the myriad students who require word processors, silent rooms and pacing space take their individual finals, and the PhD students are called upon to oversee them. Aside from his invigilating duties, D. is avoiding campus, as there has been a scarlet fever outbreak, which started in the nursery, where staff children attend, and has apparently spread to a childless professor of D’s, who is home covered in spots and running a high fever. Since scarlet fever also weakens the heart, D. is definitely avoiding campus for T’s sake. While it seems sort of horrifying to us that scarlet fever even exists anymore as a disease, it’s apparently fairly common here among children, and doesn’t produce the debilitating 18th century plague effect any longer. A simple antibiotic clears it right up. (But still! Scarlet fever!!! T. feels she has read far too many 19th century novels to ever be blasé about it.)

Far from clearing up and all blue skies and flowers as is appropriate for May, it is still leaden and gray here, although rain has been at a minimum for a few days. The cool weather (the high today was 59°F/15°C, and dropping) is no deterrent to the number of short sleeves, open-toed sandals and shorts to be seen on Woodlands Rd. We wonder if the ash in the atmosphere is responsible for the coolness, but the Met Office promises faithfully that the endless winter and the cold, drippy Spring mean that it will be a fantastic summer.

We roll our eyes and carry on.

Greetings from Scotland,

D&T