I have been so busy actually doing my experimental archaeology course that there hasn’t been time to wite about it. It is fascinating and I am having great fun with a group of mostly matureish students from seven different countries, with an intriguing range of backgrounds and experiences. So far (this is week 3), we have introduced ourselves and the course, looked at the changing definitions of experimental archaeology and thought about reconstructing houses. Interesting that when an Iron Age house burns down the roof falls in and then the walls collapse on top, meaning that future archaeologists will excavate the structure walls first and then roof. Never say you don’t learn anything from reading my ramblings. Next stop pottery.

A few technical issues, such as repeated emails urging me to collect my student ID card from  room whatever, which is in …..… Dublin. Wondering how my fellow students from Australia and the US will go about this. Then, having ordered a book in time to take on holiday, randomly I get an email from the dreaded online bookseller saying there had been a problem with delivery and it was being returned. I am roughly translating this as ‘we couldn’t find your house and couldn’t be bothered to ask’. Or even ‘I wanted to be home early and couldn’t be bothered to drive to the wilds of nowhere on a wet afternoon.’ Annoying but I implemented plan B and have now got the book and a message thanking me for returning the book I didn’t want to return and assuring me that I will be refunded in the next week. Most of the reading is available to us electronically, although I do prefer paper and I have the beginnings of a library appearing now.

I am currently immersed in the first assignment, a study of the different definitions of experimental archaeology. Essay writing seems to take much longer than it did in the 1970s, maybe because I am more of a perfectionist now. Ok – or maybe just because I am old. I am also already looking ahead to assignment two which requires us to critique experimental archaeology projects on a similar theme. It is suggested that we might like to link this to our work in the final term, when we have to make something. Thinking of my own interests, I have ruled out experimenting with bewitching people – not sure that would get past the ethics committee. I could make some herbal remedies but the fun would be in testing them and I am not sure that would go down well either. So, do I do something girly and get my spinning wheel out (I really must do some spinning when I have time – try about 2024)? In a continuation of my post mid-life crisis, I am now going rogue. I have suggested to a fisherman (and boat-restorer) of my acquaintance that we might like to build a coracle in the garden. He has long been trying to persuade me to build a garage (people who know my house and garden are now questioning how on earth that would work – it wouldn’t) and I think he was keen on the boat idea thinking it might require a garage to put it in. Ok, so a boat could be a tad ambitious, it seems to involve lots of animal skins that might be difficult, not to say expensive, to acquire. Maybe fishing nets or fish traps though….. My search history now contains some slightly dodgy sites as a result of me searching for ‘where to buy hemp’.