According to the American photographer, Edwin Way Teale, ‘The world’s favorite season is the spring’ and ‘all things seem possible in May’ – and certainly for me, I have achieved many things over the last month. I had a heavy workload of marking to do, alongside teaching and some external examining work to get through – everything has been completed, a good feeling. I also seem to have participated in more than my fair share of lengthy meetings over the last month! The book writing is continuing at a pace now, with the first full draft of the whole manuscript nearing completion – another good feeling 
This month I also enjoyed a very productive short visit to County Mayo in Ireland where I am part of a team undertaking an evaluative research study; this was an initial introductory visit, meeting key people and getting a feel for the context of the work to come. Finally, as the month closed, I had a short break from work, and spent a long weekend visiting Glasgow, the Trossachs, Loch Lomond and surrounding areas – such beautiful scenery. So to finish off this entry, here is a stunning picture of Loch Lomond in the sunshine … bliss!
It is now mid-February and I have unintentionally missed the monthly blog for January. I am gradually becoming aware too that colleagues tend to use blogs and tweets for different purposes, but commonly for making statements, publishing ideas and setting off debate. Yet my blogs are more ‘notes to self’, a brief update on key areas of work, a sort of on-going diary; so I am now wondering if I am doing this ‘right’…mmm something to ponder on, comments welcome!
To continue in the same vein for now though, January and February so far have been busy teaching and marking periods. I have also found time to submit some proposals for conference papers both as a sole author, and jointly with some very valued colleagues in South Africa and in Australia. I am hoping that these abstracts meet with some success as I feel so honoured to have the opportunity to work with people from Universities across the world (keeping fingers firmly crossed on these!). I also submitted two bids for small ‘pockets’ of research funding over this period, one locally, one to a national organisation. The first has been unsuccessful, but offered good learning for its redevelopment for future submissions….the second is still under review (hopefully the already crossed fingers will work for this too)
During January I made reasonable progress on the book I am writing; I have tight plan/schedule to keep to and so far, all is going well. I enjoy writing when I have some concentrated time and can loose myself in the substance and content – a whole day can go by in, what feels like the blink of an eye!
I wouldn’t be a true Brit without mentioning the weather, particularly given the extreme conditions we have experienced at this start of the year. It has been very cold (and I really don’t like the cold), with some periods of substantial snow fall. The snow is attractive and leaves a stunning landscape, but we are not prepared for it and it brings chaos for all travellers, even those trying to get about on foot. I very much dislike driving in these conditions, so am looking forward to spring – we have snowdrops in the garden, so hopefully the new season will soon be here. In my last blog, I reported on the troubles caused by mechanical problems with my car, so can now update this by reporting that I have decided to buy a new vehicle. The new car arrives in March – perhaps along with the spring….there is much to look forward to
As predicted, November has been a hectic month. Just as it feels as though things should settle down towards the end of the calendar year and the festive break, so it gets busier and more frantic! I seem to have been away alot in November, both for teaching, attending external exam boards as external examiner and presenting research work at conference. I have again, this month, been supporting part-time, open-learning undergraduate students with final dissertation work, including individual tutorial support and group-led taught sessions. I have also been working with teaching colleagues to share some of my learning and experience of using the NVivo qualitative data analysis software for my research work. I participated in two external events during the month; with REACH network colleagues I presented some or our work at a workshop at the annual SEDA (Staff Educational Development Association) conference at the Aston Conference Centre in Birmingham; then I attended a SRHE (Society for Research into Higher Education) event at Edinburgh exploring ‘policy discourse and local enactments’. I also took part in a very interactive day at the University of LIncoln exploring our Learning Landscapes agenda further, ‘Working in partnership, working with partner colleges’. Between all of this, I completed first good drafts of chapters 1, 2 and 3 of my thesis and have started planning the next chapters for a new year on-slaught! Therefore, I have not had much space to do any work on furthering this website, but it remains written large on my ‘to do’ list!
Family life was also somewhat difficult this month with a very sad and unexpected family bereavement putting us all in a bit of turmoil. However, on a more cheery note, family pulled together and we are now all looking forward to the festive break and some time to ‘gather strength’. December will be a busy time workwise, but with some precious family time built-in.
