End of the year

My Christmas holiday has been much spent on chasing down reports as part of the preparations for my ph.d. application. Unfortunately, what I thought would be a couple of days worth of relentless database searches and archive reading turned out to be almost a case of Catch 22: It wasn't possible for me to access the archives' lists of excavations, but if I could give the archivists a list of the sites I was interested in, they could let me have a look at them. But how do you know what sites are of interest if you don't know what sites have been analysed? So I had to track down individual osteologists and ask for their help as well as reading reports and look at the bibliographies. Double unfortunately, most of the country closes down over the Christmas holidays, usually counted as nearest weekend before Christmas Eve (if occuring mid-week or earlier) until Epiphany (6th January). Well, no-one claimed that research was easy...

But all has not been reading archaeology until my eyes bled. I have read some great books, done some work on my embroideries, looked at gorgeous traditional woven blankets, wall hangings and cushions exhibited at Ystad Museum, and went for long walks in the snow (we almost had a white Christmas, as it started snowing on Christmas Day and only now has melted).

The fireworks are really getting on outside, even if it's not quite midnight yet, so I'll leave you for now and I'll see you again in 2015!