How to have cream tea

Good things happen every day.

Today there was cream tea, and lots of sun and another job application (Kew) in the mail.

As for the cream tea, there are some certain things that pertain. First, i can verify that the V&A does indeed do a nice cream tea. Cream tea is usually taken in the late afternoon - say between 2.30 and 4.30. Earl grey is customary (milk in the tea is acceptable). One takes a scone, a pat or two of butter, a healthy helping of jam - strawberry, but today there was also the unusual raspberry - and a splot of clotted cream. Split the scone into halves - or, as my instructor told me, "chop it into as many bits as you can, but halves at least" - spread butter, glop on some jam, spread on clotted cream, and more jam if you like. Perfect! I also learned about elevenses. Its the intaking of food (usually cream tea) at around 11 am. Its not only for hobbitses, as i thought when i first heard it - although Wikipedia informs me that it IS indeed a meal for LOTR people!

This being my second partaking of cream tea, i decided i think i've got the hang of it and i should have it MUCH more often. Thinking about that scone recipe rolling around the back of my mind. One of the things we discussed at tea was about how the farmers and peasants used to eat and drink something about every hour to keep fueled and hydrated. This got pared down into even less eating occasions, but the big meal was always at noon. So we have breakfast, elevenses, dinner (at noon), tea (food with tea in the afternoon) and supper/evening dinner. However, as industrialization occurred along with urbanization and modernization, now people tend to eat less frequently but more at one time, and cream tea is for fun or sometimes instead of a coffee break. Regardless, it is fun and i recommend it, as well as the V&A.

Also i am reading Collapse. Just finished the chapter on Montana and started on Easter Island. Its interesting, and the outline of Montana's problems (though no solutions are really given) is indicative of some of the widespread problems throughout the Intermountain West.

Disturbance hypothesis

Graduate school in my life is analagous to disturbance in an ecological system. Its disruptive, its difficult, it pushes my limits, and ultimately it cleans things out and provides fertile ground for growth and change. Most ecological systems require some disturbance, or are dependent on disturbance events for some piece of their functioning (fire, flood, wind, etc). Maybe it makes sense, then, that so many people choose to subject themselves to the catastrophic lifestyle of graduate school. Its a challenge, it pushes us to find our limits, it expands our horizons and perspectives. Just in the meantime, we feel a bit ruffled and tousled. Yet another way the human organism is similar to the ecosystems we are part of and inhabit. Now, i just have to figure out how publishing work fits into this scheme of lunacy?

Wales!

Rock-biter territory
Originally uploaded by n_yoder.

Two weekends ago, went to Wales (Snowdonia) for some hiking, hut-living, and playing in the sun. It was perfect weather. We arrived friday night in Caroline's mighty little car, tromped about 500 yards to the cabin and made ourselves right at home. Sunny, but not too hot. We made soup:
traditional Bulgarian soup, with stinging nettles. by Antoniya
Normal soup stock (potatoes, carrots, onions)
Trim the nettles to just the new tips.
Add the nettles toward the end.
Turn off the heat, and working quickly take a bit of broth out, and add a touch of vinegar to this.
Beat in an egg quickly so the broth runs smooth. Broth should be hot, but not boiling or the egg will cook - it should "melt" into the soup.
Perfect!

Then hiking all day saturday, with spectacular views and weather (see the Flickr site for photos). Fabulous dinner at the pub where Peter had reserved a table for our weary, merry group. Then we set off Thai lanterns Peter had: they are paper cylindrical lanterns and they float into the sky under the power of a little bunson burner. Beautiful. Slept under the stars, and realized too late that the sun now rises around 4 am.

All around great trip and a highly recommended location for outdoor fun.

Celebrate 2006

Celebrate 2006
Originally uploaded by Mike Grenville.

Somehow we missed this; didn't find out about it until today. You gotta love London!

Sol Source

Photos and stories from hiking in Wales to be posted soon. It was absolutely glorious and fabulous, in sum.

In other news, i am official at the museum for the summer:
Check out the website
(don't click if you're not intested in my shameless self promotion)
Bring on the specimens! Its databasing time. Oh, and georeferencing can come too.