Our little zoo

Now that we live in the country we find ourselves surrounded by animals. We have a load of ducks who come to be fed every morning. My favourite is nicknamed 'Baby'. He was left alone when he was really young and we didn't think he'd make it. But he is a bit of a maverick and is far happier on his own. Lots of these ducks were born in our back garden. We have a hedgehog that persuaded D it was dead until it shuffled out of sight when he wasn't looking. And we have a lovely little brave mouse who continued to seat next to me while I read Jacques Ranciere's 'The Emancipated Spectator' this afternoon. There are hundreds of bunnies that spend evenings chasing each other and a little deer who occasionally reappears. It is wonderful to have so many friends out here. We were joined by the Scottish section of the fam over the weekend and, although the weather was horrible, we had a great time. It is mega to share all our animals and peace with lovely folks.

After the excitement of the Book, the past few weeks have been relatively quiet at work. My time has been taken up with finishing my PSi paper for next week (sorry, where did July come from?), rewriting a horrid article that I have been battling with for months (NB corner turned on this one today - I think I might have finally found a point to it all!), second marking and getting things ready for the external examination meetings that are coming up this week. I have also spent a few hours each day reading. This is something I do every year at this time. Making the transition from full-time lecturer who researches to full-time researcher period is not one that is always easy to negotiate. So, I like to ease myself in by reading a selection of inspiring (hopefully!) books. This week on my list I have the aforementioned Ranciere (have made it to the end of chapter 1 and am actually rather excited to see where it is going to go next), Beckett's 'Krapp's Last Tape' and Joseph Conrad's 'The Secret Agent'. These are all books that I can justify as work. I guess the transition is going to be all the more fascinating this time round as I am heading into my sabbatical.

And finally...happy father's day Dad and Dad in-law. We are so glad to have you both! We have an exciting gig coming up this weekend - I get to see one of only two musicians still on my 'need to see live' wishlist. One of these is Peter Gabriel, the other is... Well, I'll post about that next week. Oh, and if you have a couple of weeks free then we have put our Germany/Switzerland photos on Picasa. Just click on the photos side bar on Molemaison.

Until next time...
CSW