Dunbar

A few weeks back I went to Dunbar to see a friend play bagpipes in a parade and take part in a festival. Good times were had by all and it was a nifty town. Several folk I know here are from there and they seemed less amused by it than I was but that's fine. It had a very cool harbour with castle.

From Dunbar

And then we went to the beach to play around.

From Dunbar

And once we'd played to our heart's content we went back up and had a cook out. None of those pictures turned out incredibly well so here's a photo of a thistle and a bug.

From Dunbar

Here's the album with some more photos if you're interested.

Dunbar

Mice.

I have mice.

From Edinburgh

See?

Of course, I wouldn't know I have mice except that I have cats.

From Edinburgh

River (left) and Sephie (right) like to play with them. Sephie is clearly the better hunter but River doesn't let her enjoy her time alone. Oh no, they bat them back and forth like breathing tennis balls until I get involved and get the mouse in a box (like above). OR it's 4am and they corner a mouse in a shoe and I wake up to it screaming. Screaming mice in the dead of the night is terrifying.

There are no signs anywhere in the flat of mice. Nothing nibbled, no tiny poo drops. Just a twitching tail in Sephie's mouth right before she drops one at my feet. And she really, really hates it when I take them away.

(Belated) Goodbye Bristol

I've been pretty bad at keeping this thing updated so here is my good bye to Langford and Bristol.

My last week in Langford sheep shearing so here they are waiting in line:

From Bristol

And with me helping pin one to a wall so we could take care of it's feet.

From Bristol

A few days after they were sheared I went out to play with them once more. This is little Ronan sniffing my wellies. Yeah, they're cute but it was a pretty bad decision to buy white boots for tromping through poo-covered fields.

From Bristol

And here are some with the sunset in the background.

From Bristol

Bristol was a cool city, I wish I'd spent more time there. Here's a random photo of one of the water ways from a pub where I had lunch on my last day in town.

From Bristol

And of course, it's famous for it's bridge. The highest and/or longest suspension bridge of it's time. I dunno, I'm lazy, google it if you're interested. “Clifton Suspension Bridge”

From Bristol

From Bristol

So that's that... next up: a return to Edinburgh.

London

Life the past few weeks has mostly just been writing my literature review and preparing my resume for applications. Super fun, right? I'm currently stuck on the “skills” part and debating the relative merit of things like “exceptional cooking skill” and “ability to effortlessly surf the Internet for 12 hours at a time.” Does anyone else feel stupid when they capitalize Internet? It makes my brain twitch.

The only break I've really had has been going to London. Dad was in the country for three days so we met in London and saw the sites.

Day 1: Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, British Museum, Sherlock Holmes Museum, double decker bus tour.

From London

From London

From London

Day 2: Tower Bridge, Tower of London, river boat tour, London Eye

From London

From London

From London

From London

And of course, in wandering I took a few of the standard photos you're supposed to in London.

From London

From London

From London

(Hah, BNP. They're in your royal residences, protecting your jewels.)

Oh, and if you want to see more photos you can go here:

London

Oh, and there are kitties!

These cats have politely been donating urine to my research so to pay them back, I play with them most evenings. They give me my “fluffy fix.” But, five cats in a small building left mostly alone means they're rather desperate for amusement and lovin'.

Here they've stolen my hoody string and ripped it into pieces.

From Bristol

And here, three try to get love at once.

From Bristol

Water feature.

That courtyard also has a really nice fountain which makes nice ambient sound. I took photos of it, as well. After a storm.

From Bristol

And on a sunny day in pieces.

From Bristol

From Bristol

Also with it in the background.

From Bristol

Oh, by the way, this is where I live.

It occurs to me that I never posted about where I live now. Funny to do it now when I'm leaving in a month but better late than never. Let's see... where I am is about an hour outside of Bristol at the university's vet school campus. We have a big fancy building called Langford House (seen here in the eye of a storm.)

From Bristol

It's basically perched in the middle of a bunch of sheep fields with some trees around. Sometimes I get to play with the sheep but mostly I just wander around and take photos.

From Bristol

The aftermath of earlier storm.

From Bristol

There's also a lot of nature around. Here are some flowers that are in the courtyard next to my building.

From Bristol

From Bristol

From Bristol

From Bristol

From Bristol

From Bristol

From Bristol

The gardeners are really impressive. Every week has new flowers blooming and they're all ordered perfectly to replace the ones near them as their time passes.