ossamenta

Despite the snow, England hasn’t come to a complete standstill. However, while the larger roads now are snow free (apparently no roads in Oxford were plowed, salted or gritted during the main snowfall 5-7th January - not even the steep hill of London Road!), the pavements vary between packed snow and semi-slush. Just enough to make it difficult to walk on. The temperature wavers between plus and minus, and the edge of the roads, which usually are considered cycle lanes, have not been plowed or gritted at all. Add to that the risk of black ice, and I’m sure you understand why I’m walking to work these days!

Unfortunately, despite being busy with writing, the essay is not quite finished yet. I still have parts of the discussion to do, and I have to add a chapter on problems using written sources when researching Viking Age/Early Medieval tanning. Still, I managed to visit Copenhagen, meet up with a few friends and relatives (not nearly as many as I would have liked to, though), bake Christmas cakes and lussekatter, and most important of all: relax!

Work is very busy, as extra projects had been added on top of my already busy schedule. I’m afraid I have to postpone working on the essay until the weekends. This weekend, however, I intend to mix business with pleasure and go to London. The business part is a book at the British Library which hopefully will be useful for the essay, and the pleasure part will be the newly opened medieval galleries at the V&A.