It’s been more of a ‘nose-to-the-grindstone’ sort of fortnight but with some lovely moments and the opportunity to share my enthusiasm for plants with lots of students.  We’ve done better for sunshine than many places further south and west but have still had our share of grey days. 

One exciting development at work is that I’m going to be involved in running a field trip to the Swiss alps next summer, for our final year Ecology students.  We’ll be looking at birds, insects and plants so there will be a real opportunity for some integrated teaching about how biodiversity is affected by environmental factors across a wide range of taxa.  The town of Pontresina where we’ll be based sits on the Bernina Pass, in the Upper Engadin Valley east of St Moritz and has plenty of cable car and funicular railway options to get us up to the high ground.  I can’t wait to do some montane botanising again!  There will be all my old favourites from the Himalayas – Gentians, Primulas, Edelweiss, Rock-Jasmine and so on. 

Last weekend was one of lovely treats, both indoors and outdoors.  A weekend in Sheffield with Rosie and Sam meant the opportunity for some excellent Palestinian food, a walk along the Sheffield and Tinsley canal, a trip to the theatre and a workshop making Tiffany-style stained glass flowers with the wonderful Kate Billington at Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet.

The birds are more apparent now, with fewer leaves on the trees, which means more sightings of Herons and Kingfishers when I’m out rowing. I also think the birds are singing more, particularly my favourite long-tailed tits along the river bank.  I’m seeing big skeins of geese flying overhead too, heading south to warmer climes.

I’ve started my first year lectures on plant evolutionary history, which I always try to liven up with samples of material, so that has meant more trips to the Botanic gardens to collect sampled of moss, liverworts and ferns to show the students. Taking a little time to enjoy the late autumn colours, particularly of the Beech trees around the ‘Fungate’, is a no-brainer and there are fungi to find too!

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been listening to Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead and reading Precipice by Robert Harris and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin   – three very different books.  Harlem Shuffle tells the story of Ray Carney, furniture salesman and small-time fence, who gets caught up in the criminal world of Harlem in the late 1950s and paints a vivid picture of life in a city segregated on racial lines and the injustices which led to the Harlem riots of 1964.

Precipice is set in London, earlier in the 20^th Century, and tells the extraordinary story of British Prime Minister H.H. Asquith’s obsession with his young lover, Venetia Stanley, and how he was distracted in the early stages of the 1914-18 war by constant letter-writing and sharing of state secrets with her.  I feel very on-trend with my reading; Precipice has been Radio 4’s ‘Book at Bedtime’ this week.

Gabrielle Zevin is a new author to me and her protagonists’ world of computer game design and gaming is completely alien, but the novel tells the story of Sadie and Sam’s friendship and love over thirty years quite beautifully and makes the world of gaming surprisingly appealing, even to me.

Sheffield had a couple of culinary highlights, including the Palestinian food at South Street Kitchen and at Baity, in the Cambridge Street Collective.  Aubergine in tasty sauces and roast cauliflower featured, along with zataar-sprinkled chips.  Why did I not think of that before!  We also had a very enjoyable trip to El Castillo tapas bar in Bishop Auckland – very tasty food, include roasted vegetables grown in the walled garden.  The highlight for me was probably the olive bread, though.

The cultural highlight was easier to pin down. Sam and I went to see Kenrex at Sheffield Playhouse when Rosie was working and it comes highly recommended. The play is a two-hander, based on a true story, with actor Jack Holden taking the parts of both the small-town bully in Skidmore, Missouri after whom the play is named and all the people whose lives he makes a misery and who eventually turn the tables on him. Live music on stage, composed and performed by John Patrick Elliott, helps create the tense environment against which the action plays out.

In the garden, the scent of Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’ hits me every time I enter and leave the house.  I’ve been picking and juicing more garden apples and wrapped some in newspaper to see how well they will store in the loft. Some have been incorporated into my home-made mincemeat too. I’ve been taking the chance to cut back the hedge at the back of the garden before our last garden waste bin collection for the year, enjoying the crimson hips on the dog rose.