As the year marches on, things have finally thawed out here
in Stockholm, meaning that our frequent walks around the surrounding parks and
woodland only require one jacket and I can leave the heated gloves at home. This
was certainly not the case a few weeks back however, when I got my first
experience of a proper Stockholm winter since moving here in 2018. Temperatures
dropped to around -16
oC for a couple of weeks, meaning properly frozen
lakes, allowing for biblical walks without needing to be laden with safety spikes
and probes. Emil and I took full advantage of this on a crisp, sunny Sunday with
a walk across to Hagaparken, which usually involves a sizeable detour around
the bottom
of Brunnsviken lake. As someone who comes from a country of “never,
ever walk on the ice”, this felt slightly surreal and I took full lead from my proper
northern companion, making sure to stay well clear of the reeds and keep our
ears pricked for any cracks. Once across, we went into full old couple mode and
found a bench to sit on, admire the view, tut people’s poor ice safety, and share
a flask of hot cocoa before heading back to mine via firm ground, ready for my
first experience of French toast.
Other weekends have followed similar patterns with Emil
coming over for a sunny stroll, trying out a new recipe and watching the next instalment
of a tv series or film. Throughout February, the recipes have been selected
from vegetarian cookbooks as we decided to go meat free for those 4 weeks. Our
top finds came from Ottolenghi’s ‘Simple’ and ‘Plenty More’, the books that
Emil gave me as part of my birthday present (I can thoroughly recommend if you’re
looking for new ways to elevate your vegetables).
On the work side of things, I completed a significant step
in my PhD with my half-time seminar. Given that in April I’ll be three years into
what should be a five-year PhD, this seminar came a little later than the
intended half-time mark, but it feels good to have that one out of the way and
it’s provided some inspiration and motivation for the rest of my project. The
half-time seminar is open for anyone in the department, or otherwise linked to
the project, to attend and involves a 30-minute presentation of the PhD’s
research so far, followed by questions from an opponent and anyone else who so
wishes. In my case, I presented (via Zoom) the work that I’ve done testing different
methods for surveying the ground in front of glaciers, so that we can
understand how the ice moved in the past, and I touched on the research I’m
doing at the moment into how we report the errors in the results from one of
these survey methods. The seminar went well and a professor from Newcastle
University asked pertinent questions which have now sparked some new ideas for
my fourth and final research paper; this is something that has had to be re-defined
due to a certain virus and lack of access to Norway. With the seminar complete,
Eva and I celebrated with lunch at an outdoor café in the nearby park. A chilly
breeze meant we had to stay bundled in our coats, but it was quite the novelty to
have our sandwiches prepared by someone else!
I think that’s just
about it for February, a quiet month chilling out in Stockholm. News from the
UK has been very encouraging as I keep getting reports of vaccinations taking place.
We’re a little slower to get started over here in Sweden but I’m hopeful that by
Autumn a trip to the UK will be conceivable once again.
Comments
Post a Comment