Consistency

Consistency is totally not my thing!! But I do love to blog!! Grrlscientist has inspired me to be more consistent! She has also inspired me to go back blonde, and long, but that's slightly off subject!!

I am so excited to write a proper blog about my time at BESsfe but for now this is just a few highlights. And lowlights!! The totally science irrelevant ones

Highlights

Wine

Beer

Cheese

Pastries

Coffee

Pastries

Pastries

Getting to know my colleague Darren as a pal, not just someone who I science with!

Lowlights

The lack of Christmas jumpers today!!

Tiny coffee cups

I'll blog about the science when I have a bit more time. But for now I'm so happy to be going to a session in the most comfortable room in the Grande Palais, to hear about policy. I love policy!

NRG BESS

On the train home from another great NRG BESS meeting I was having a good think about the great things that the NRG BESS community has given me. Which I'm aware sounds a bit cheesy. I thought I would just jot a quick blog on my favourite things.

Firstly the sense of community. Out of my own choice I work from home, which can often feel a bit lonesome, and I don't get the chance to discuss my work other than in progress meetings. The NRG BESS meetings are great to informally chat about and around your work, which leads to more creative thinking towards it. It's also nice to hear that I'm not the only one that is stressed and feeling a little worn out.

Secondly is the great training. For me personally my favourites have been the policy training which was the final bit of inspiration I needed to apply for the policy internship. And then yesterdays Participatory GIS session. I feel a lot more confident in using some PGIS in the next stage of my PhD now.

Thirdly I like being involved in something that I really believe is going to continue on and be a great platform for early career biodiversity/PhD scientists into the future. Especially with the great structure we hashed out for the way the network is going to be working in 2015.

Fourthly inspiring my love for York, I'm still yet to visit without BESS involvement. 

Fifthly they're all great banagrams players.

Now to write my manifesto, so I can play a more direct part in the continuation of the network and give back a little more.

Valuing our Life Support Systems Summit 2014

This is just a really quick blog about a small point that came up during the first panel discussion this morning at the Natural Capital Initiative summit.

Terminology.

It's such an important factor in the whole discussion of natural capital and ecosystem services. One of the panel said that he used different terms merely to avoid repetition. Terms like ecosystem services, natural capital, natural environment, environment systems, nature and many others are used regularly and interchangeably although in a dictionary they would all have different meanings.

Is it important? Is it an issue? It's difficult to tell as it only comes to light in direct questions or when a problem occurs.

The idea of an external glossary was brought up, which I think is an excellent idea, for identifying what the terms mean within different contexts. Though the point was also brought up that we need to focus our time on solving the issues rather than being hung up on the terms we use to get there. Two sides to everything, as usual.

But what if clearing up the definitions elucidates the solving of issues, saving both time and money.

In my survey one of the questions was 'at which temporal scale do you work?' most of the participants said they work at a 'medium term'. When asked to identify what they thought 'medium term' meant there were responses ranging from 1-50 years. So everyone thinks they are working at the same time scales, thus there are no mismatches or problems. But that is not the reality.

Is it not worse that the problems don't get identified because we don't know they're there?

I thought this was just going to be a super short blog. But I really do have a passion for terminology and clarity.

I'll blog more about the actual summit over the weekend.

Policy Internship

I mentioned before about getting an interview for a three month policy internship, and how giddy I was, and proud of myself for getting the interview.

Well.

Last night I found out that I got it. I get to spend three months working for the Government Office for Science. In Westminster, so close to the Abbey that I imagine the entirety of the three months will be to the soundtrack of the choir boys!

The GO Science internship will involve me writing briefing notes, and background papers and organising workshops and meetings. I am so excited about this opportunity, I just want to start now.

This internship will give me the experience needed to get closer to my dream career in the science/policy sector. Doing a PhD used to be my ultimate dream, and now I am over half way through attaining that goal, I have realised the importance of the integration of science and policy, and I want to be involved in that.During the internship I'm going to meet a lot of people that I want to be when I "grow up", specifically Sir Mark Walport the Government Chief Scientific Adviser.

All I know as yet is that I have it, I don't yet know when I start, or what projects I'll be working on. But I do know that I have found the perfect super chic A4 sized bag to save up for, so I can carry all the important documents I'll be writing.

The next step is to reply to my offer with an acceptance, and work out how I'm going to live in London, or deal with a massive daily commute.

Bayesian belief networks

"Hey Zoe, I've heard you've started modelling"

One of my Cranfield colleagues said that to me the other day, and I'm fully aware I'm not camera shy, but if someone was using my face in some sort of modelling campaign then I wanted to know about it, so I could tell everyone! It was a few seconds into the conversation before I realised they were talking about my survey, modelling my data and Bayesian belief networks (BBN).

Now, I'm not an expert on BBN, as yet, so I have included a link to the wikipedia site which has some great links on it if you want to read a bit more into it.

What I know is that I can use BBN to model my data in a way that allows me to see the degree of belief that a child node will be in a particular state given the states of the parent nodes. This sentence took a while for me to understand, but if you see the picture below, you can see that the 'LocalIs' and 'TemporalScaleWork' boxes are the child nodes and the 'Policy' box is the parent node. 

If a respondent identified as working in Policy in the Private sector then it can be said that there is a 17% probability that they feel they work in the short term and an 83% probability that they work at the medium term, temporally. Their identification of what the term Local means is shown in the 'LocalIs' box. 

One of the reasons that I am using BBN is because of how interactive it is, by selecting the different options within the nodes you can show the interaction between the different bits of information. Another reason for using it is it is possible to feed in data from different sources, as it doesn't all need to be uniform data. This will be useful when I begin my workshops and want to integrate the data I collected.

I really like using BBN and I use the Norsys Netica software to build my networks, it's very user friendly, and has a great 'help' mode.One of the best things that has come of this so far is that I have managed to start answering my own questions about BBN, so I really feel like I'm getting a grasp of how it all works.

Achievements

Just having a think about all the little achievements that I have accomplished, as I am half way through my PhD, and struggling to stay sane. I'll go into more detail about each one, as and when they get even more exciting.

• I have an interview for a science policy internship in Westminster
• Just having the interview alone is so exciting, as I had to write a few different pieces of work for the application. Knowing that what I have written is good enough to get through to interview is a huge achievement.
• I have had my poster abstract accepted at the BESSfe conference in Lille.
• I get to go to Lille and use my poster as a catalyst for talking about my work, and I will hopefully make lots of really useful contacts.
• I have closed my survey
• No longer dedicating any time to pushing it, or finding new places to advertise it and try to make people do it. I really want this whole chapter of my thesis to be written, done and dusted by the end of this year. 
• I have (almost) mastered using Netica to build Bayesian Belief Networks.
• This is rather specific, and will mean something to some people, but nothing to others. I am rather proud of myself for this one as statistics have been the bane of my life since I began my academic career, so to actually know how to use a data interpretation programme is super exciting.
• I have made business cards
• When they come through I think that will be when I finally realise I am an adult.
• I am still half sane, and halfway through something that I constantly tell myself I can't do!

Climate Change

Well! How exciting was yesterday re: climate change?? If I wasn't passionate about it already, listening to Leonardo DiCaprio saying "For the economy itself will die if our ecological system collapses" at the UN Climate Summit would have definitely inspired me to really start thinking. I am aware that there have been many passionate and exciting speeches surround the real threat that climate change is, but it is the way that the media, and social media have grasped this Leo speech that is exciting me most. We need to talk about it, and open conversations, the more people get talking, the more ideas can start flowing. It is not something that needs to be left to the ideas of just scientists, it needs to be opened up to everyone,new innovations are needed. 

Climate change is a huge threat to our continuing to live on this planet. It is looming and there isn't enough being done. I've always thought that there is a feeling of "why does recycling matter?" and "there's no point, what difference can one person make?", but the information about that difference, and why recycling matters needs to be disseminated and communicated to everyone, clearly. We know that we should, and we know that it is 'good for the environment', but is that enough?

There can't be the change in thinking and the shift of ideas that is so desperately needed if we don't know WHY it is we need to do it. Not just the why of 'or else we're going to be submerged by the sea, and all of the planets creatures are going to become extinct', but the why behind the actions. How recycling relates to climate change, why turning the tap off whilst brushing your teeth is important, why you should turn the lights off when leaving a room, and why you probably shouldn't hire a hot tub for your birthday weekend even though you super want to!

I think that might be my next blog, all the things that we are constantly told to do, and why?

Gloucester Services

I had an amazing weekend in Bristol celebrating my best friend turning old, and since her birthday has passed, I can officially begin the countdown to mine (6 weeks 6 days).

On the journey back up to Leicester we stopped off at Gloucester Services on the M5. And what a treat it was. It got me excited, as it shows that although we have to have services stations, they don't have to be eyesores full of fast food! They can have green roofs, vegetable patches and ponds, and be full of local produce. I do have a bit of a love for green and brown roofs, they require a little bit more work in the beginning, but they are an amazing way to capture carbon, create habitats, improve air quality, absorb water and they are great insulators.  After a quick Google I found that the staff are even bussed in, a great way to keep emissions down.

Obviously, I don't have the expertise to know whether it's all just green bells and eco whistles, but I think it is definitely a step in the right direction. I don't think it is going to increase traffic, people drive cars, a lot, and having less service stations isn't going to change that. But if we can improve those service stations, to move them forward in this kind of direction, then wouldn't that be brill?

I'm Back

Hello again, so I'm back, and hopefully back to stay! I only really left because I thought that maybe I should blog less and work more, but I'm now feeling more confident in what I am doing, and how it is going, so I'm back!

What really spurred me on to start blogging again, is wanting to document my experiences of MSc supervision.

It was so fun, I loved it. I loved seeing the two students that I had through from the beginning to the end of their projects. I feel really lucky to have had two completely different students too.

I had KC who, like me, likes to know his targets and goals and exactly what is expected of him. He started off slow, but then once he had a clear picture in his head he ran with it.

Then there was Joshua, who had written about 2000 words before our first meeting, he had his head down and was focussed, and never thought that what he had done was enough. He was constantly looking for more to do.

I was so immensely proud of them when I went to see them  at the Cranfield Masters Research Exhibition yesterday!

Well done guys, and thank you so much for throwing me into the process of supervision at the deep end!

Topics

It's been almost two weeks since I last blogged, mainly because I haven't really thought of anything to blog about. Since the technical writing course I have been having too much none PhD related fun, thus haven't reported it on here. I've now decided that maybe I'll just pop some cool pictures up of the things I've been doing, as this blog is for me as much as for you!

I've added lots of fruit, vegetables and herbs to my garden!

I did a colour blast dash run. 5k with lots of paint being thrown at you!

I had a Good Friday party and made this lovely hedgehog!

I cooked Easter Lunch in our horrid new oven...wine was necessary

My questionnaire is still open, and responses are still coming in which is great. And I am writing a paper on it, which I am hoping to get published. So I am still working, but there is no real changes, or anything particularly reportable happening! There is a lot in the pipeline though, so there will be some exciting updates soon!

Technical writing course!

It was brought up in my 12 month review that I shouldn't really be writing PhD reports in the same style as my blog! Those weren't the exact words used, but I knew what they meant.

Sunny day for a flight...

I have never been a particularly technical writer, and I really struggle with trying to be clever on paper. I can talk the talk, but I can't write it down. So I attended a technical writing course that Cranfield put on. The trainer was Dr David Cooke, and he made the whole thing very interesting. Well he had to, to compete with the views of the airfield, and the aeroplanes coming in and taking off!

Try not to over complicate.

It was a two day course and the first day consisted of a lot of grammar and spelling talks and activities. It was really informative, although it should have all been information I already knew! But mainly when writing I leave the grammar to Old Pa, as I know he loves to edit my work for me and I wouldn't want to ruin his fun.  David also spoke a lot about clarity, over complicating, and trying to sound clever. He gave us lists of phrases that can be replaced by single words, but I think I might use this list in the opposite way when I can't reach a word count.
At the end of the first day we were given a sheet with some examples of all of the different things we had covered in the day, and some of them were rather funny so I have included them on here.

Maybe rephrase this, we want to make sure it is the baby we're boiling, not the milk!

Day two was a lot more about review, report and paper writing, and David equipped us with a whole folder on how to make sure we get published. Well, that is how I see it, I just need to bring my actual science up to the level of David's writing advice, and maybe one day I will be published. Maybe.

Apparently this was real, but I don't think even David believed that this could have got past even the laziest editor

I hope Dr David Cooke never actually sees any of my writing, as I wouldn't want to make him doubt his expertise as a trainer!

Policy

This post has taken me longer than I thought it would, lots going on!

FREE STUFF

I was at the British Ecological Society policy training workshop on Tuesday! And what a day it was.

At first I was worried, as the day started with free pens and badges and note books with bees on. And we all know how I feel about bees. And free things. So I was wary that the day may have peaked too soon, but I needn't have worried!!

The workshop started with an exercise. We all popped our anxieties, inhibitions and other negative feelings towards dealing with all aspects of the policy world, onto post its. This was quite cathartic, and proved that everyone has similar hesitations.

One side of the post it walls.

There were lots of inspiring and super interesting talks throughout the day, I'm going to chat about a few that I really connected with.

The first was from Sasha Leigh from NERC. Sasha's talk gave a great overview of the policy cycle, and of all the different houses and committees there are. She  also highlighted the different ways that we can get involved and influence. And the different ways NERC can help us get involved and influence! I had a great chat with Sasha during the lunch break about how exciting it is being part of NERC. NERC have so many opportunities with which they want to help you grow as a scientist and help you get to where you want to be!

I was really looking forward to the talk from Jonny Wentworth from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. Mainly because I am in the process of applying for a BES POST fellowship. One of the things that Jonny said that stuck with me is that most policy is made as a reaction, so I am going to keep myself up to date, just in case something happens that makes my science fit! The fact that there is also no obligation for policy to be evidence based, really got me thinking. It must make it hard to be the scientist who submits the evidence and sees everything go the other way! Jonny also spoke a lot about uncertainty, which is one of the most difficult things to communicate accurately. And gave a cool paper to read on the topic, which I'll be getting into soon. He also have some really great tips for good practice...but alas I had to pop out for those two slides, much to my dismay. I have been promised that they will be emailed round though!!

I <3 Darwin, so this was pretty exciting.

We had some great exercises. Two involved journal papers which we were all sent to read prior to the day. The first paper exercise was to summarise the paper onto one side of A4. We did this in groups and it was so difficult, especially as we only had 10 mins in which to do it. Our group had Greg McInery who saved us by drawing a brilliant visualisation, but we paired it with too much writing alas.

The second started with us relating our science to the different priority issues in the paper. And ended with us attempting to relate our science to a box of chocolates. I didn't attempt this last one, I have given up chocolate for lent, and as that was the prize I had no motivation! And I coildi think of a way!

Throughout the day solutions were added to the walls of the coffee room and the post it notes were being rearranged into different groups with their potential solutions. I have some nice panoramics so you can see what I mean! It was great to have a visualisation of everything coming together!

Overall I had an amazing day, met some amazing people and have come away with a renewed sense of vigour for all things policy!!

Translating my scrawl.

Throughout the three BESS days I have created a collection of scrawls on all shapes and sizes of paper. There was so much information and ideas and inspiration that I had to write down, and I am now paying the price for forgetting my notebook. I am trying to find some order to the scraps of paper, I'm sure I'll work it all out soon, and remember why I have drawn some of these strange diagrams!

I thought I would pop on here some of my favourite things from the two days of the BESS annual science meeting...

I really enjoyed hearing about the different tools and tools that can be used to assess, value and map ecosystem service provision. I have done a bit of research into InVEST before, but I had never heard of LUCI or Aries, so I was really intrigued by them. In my PhD I am looking at the scale of ecosystem services so these tools are really relevant. Although I think I am fully invested in InVEST, I think is definitely good to know what else is out there!

I loved Helen King's talk on cultural services, as they can often be a bit looked over, though they are the services that have the visual impact and draw users into them. It gave me a bit of food for thought as I am not looking at any cultural services within my project.


The Battle of the Bands, was definitely interesting. And being a judge was quite the experience, though I am glad that it worked out that there were 4 groups in second place, and one clear winner. And the clear winner was the team where both performers were from Cranfield University and one of which was my PhD subject advisor...merely by coincidence of course.

The F3UES team collecting their delicious trophy.

Once I get through my notes, I think there will be more that I took away from the meeting, but my favourite thing is being able to make new connections, and reinforce older ones.

It's April Fool's day

And it is also the first day of the BESS conference. Knowing some of the people in attendance as I do, the April Fool's day part of this worries me. Hopefully there will be nothing too wild, although I am on the panel to judge the battle of the bands competition tonight! Each of the four BESS consortia has submitted a music video, and from what I heard last night after some people had had a couple of glasses of wine, it should be pretty entertaining. Just need to get a moment to make score cards, though I can't imagine having to make anything beyond 4.

The NRG BESS gathering yesterday was great, so cool hearing about what other people are doing in their work. Also discussing different ideas, and the things that went wrong for other people, so I know what to try and avoid. I rather enjoyed presenting my work, it's such a nice comfortable environment to do it in, and you feel like people really want to know what you're doing!

Moving the NRG BESS group forward with a website, a conference, outreach activities and all the other plans we have is really exciting, and I definitely feel more inspired to take it all forward.

We had a great policy training workshop from the BESS directorate which really opened my eyes to the difficulties of trying to be a scientist in the policy and decision making world. Talks from Laura Harrison, and Kevin Hicks about their way into the policy/science world definitely gave me some food for thought. Would I ever be able to actually keep my opinions to myself and be unbiased?!?!

NRG BESS, and me on the left with rather unenthusiastic Jazz hands, it was the 4th attempt and I was hungry!

1 out of 12

That is how many nights I will be spending in my own bed! 1 out of the next 12! Which isn't very many, but there are lots of things to do, and none of them are in Leicester!

I'm currently on a train to York with three bags and an A1 poster! The poster is proving itself to be a rather annoying travel companion, I chose not to invest in a cardboard tube so it's my own fault!

In York tomorrow I will be at the NRG BESS meeting, which will be great! Next research generation BESS has moved forward so much since we formed back in October!! It will be great to catch up face to face with people and make future plans!!

After the NRG BESS meeting tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday are the BESS annual science meeting. Knowing where I'm at with my PhD and knowing what I want to get from the meeting is making me really excited for it. At last year's meeting I felt a bit out of my depth, but I've got a bit of a game plan this time. I know who I want to talk to and what i want to know! So I should hopefully come away from the meeting with some exciting ideas and new inspiration!!

After BESS I'm off up to Edinburgh to meet Olivia, my best friends brand new baby girl! Too exciting!

After Edinburgh I get my one night at home before galavanting off to London on Monday! I'm off to the British Ecological Society's policy training workshop! I've got lots of reading to do before then, which will help me pass the 400 train hours I'm putting in! I don't really know what to expect from the workshop, but I'm excited for it!

I'm then back up North for family things in Lancaster!

All of this is exciting and cool, but I'm going to have to put in a few hours of work here and there! Which is that bit of added pressure I love!!

I'm travelling backwards on the train so should probably leave this now so I don't get ill on the nice man next to me!

Alas, no relevant photos so I have included my favourite photo of the queen!

Bye x

It's been aaaaages.

...and ages and ages!!! But I'm back to blog!!

"What has been going on?" I hear you cry?! Not a whole lot of things, but those things which have been going on have been all consuming!!

Firsts things first, I had my 12 month review. This review is to assess whether I have done enough work, and if the work being done is PhD level. If it isn't I get downgraded to a Masters, and luckily, as I already have a Masters, I managed to pass and I am now officially a fully fledged PhD candidate! Brill!

I have also launched my questionnaire, which I have had a massively amazing response to! So far I have had 47 people complete it, which is insane!! The data coming out of it is so exciting, and I will dedicate an entire blog post to the fun things! I promise they'll be fun!

I also have two MSc students who are going to be supervised by me. They are doing projects that will hopefully lead into a paper that I'm writing alongside my supervisor.

So, PhD wise that is where I'm at. I'm also off to the BESS annual science meeting on Sunday night for 3 days, which will be fun!!

All the pictures are of the crafty crafty things I've been doing. Crafty things soothe my soul!!

So, that is an update, and from now on I won't neglect this.

TTFN

I carry a spanner.

I don't believe you sir!

I feel like such an independent woman, I don't need the Green Flag man, I carry a spanner, I'm pretty much Beyonce!! I don't really like calling the Green Flag man out, not now we know each other, well, he knows me and likes to pretend his name is "Stig". Last time I called him out, he commented on me having "something on my nose", which was a bit tight as that something is a line that I have had since I was BORN! I understand that there may be more than one Green Flag man, but 50% of the time I get the same one. And I don't really like him. So I carry a spanner (a google image search confirmed that it is a spanner).

I have just submitted my questionnaire to the ethics committee. Hopefully they will find it ethically sound and trust me to follow the rules! Then I shall be able to proceed and put out my pilot study. Which will be exciting, and give me something to talk about in my 9-12 month review.

The biodiversity working group meeting was fun last night, though it did run quite late. There was lots of talk of wildlife corridors and green roofs, which is all very exciting. I only had 3 actions to go away with, one of which was make some biodiversity bingo...which I cannot wait to get started on!

I'm now off to a workshop on "PowerPoint 2010: Creating Cranfield Presentation". Which is long overdue, but will be useful for the thousands of presentations I have coming up.

EcosySTEM Services

Football in the hail. Good thing won.

I did  some volunteering yesterday, as a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) ambassador. I spent the day being an 'expert' in project management, helping the whole of year 7 keep their imaginary music festivals in order. This involved sitting in the textiles room (my office) and being approached by all the mini project managers with their amazing questions.

"How much will it cost to get this guy who is really funny and plays funny comedy parody songs of songs in the charts on YouTube to play at the festival?"

"Do you think 2 toilets will be enough for 30,000 people?"

"Why do you have the same phone as my mum?" 

"Were you on The Apprentice?"

Burn's Night Haggis

I obviously replied "Yes, and I won" to the last question and rambled on for a while about my experience of working with Lord Sugar, the £250,000 investment and all that it entailed. I stopped when I realised that they truly believed me.

The day was fun, and whilst the kids were consulting the construction, health and safety, electrical engineering and other actual experts I had time to write an article for the Cranfield students magazine. So although there was nothing really relevant to my PhD involved in the day, I got some bits done, and I realised that the word STEM is in the word ecosystem...which is knowledge I will definitely be using one day.

Irn Bru floats...a Linlithgow speciality

I now have the task of scrawling through all the contacts I have ever made and finding 10 people who would have a look at my questionnaire and be my pilot study group. They have to work in the environmental/planning/research/that sort of thing industry, and like me. I can think of 2 people so far...2 is not 10. Alas.

Again...no relevant photo's so just some stuff I've done.

Window Wipers

Today I got in my car to drive to Cranfield, and my window wipers don't work. My window wipers, how do they even break?? I'm not pretending like it hasn't happened before, because I have previously been trapped in Cranfield on an extraordinarily rainy day due to a window wiper malfunction...I got the nice Green Flag man out and he fixed it. So why is it happening again? Annoying, but at least my supervisor told me he won't be there either, so it was mainly going to be a social visit!

Kat and I in Glover's Reef, Belize

A social visit?! Friends?! In Cranfield?! Yes! My lovely friend Kat, who I was friends with during our undergrad, and shared a bunk with in Belize, is now at Cranfield! We have been sharing a supervisor for 4 months and not even noticed. Amazing! I was also going to bully her into helping me out and doing the odd bit of weeding on our Cranfield biodiversity plots, but I can bully her into it next week instead now. I had also arranged to meet seeding and weeding friend James for a coffee, and do the same bit of bullying for more of his spectacular weeding skills, he is just so good at it (I'm hoping he will read this and thus offer his services).

L-R Two helpful council lads with rakes, James, Me with a wild carrot!

I am excited for the biodiversity working group this month, as I have actually got some things to bring to the table, a few ideas and things that I have done. I'm going to get the group to read through an article I am writing for the Cranfield student magazine, which I think will help explain some of the biodiversity plots, and also help in recruit weeding volunteers.

Justifying IKEA

So, currently I am on my way to IKEA. This makes me feel guilty for two reasons. Firstly, I should be working. I have conquered this issue by getting up super early and finishing off my questionnaire, and sending it off to be approved. I have also made the falafel for tea. So efficient.

Secondly, I don't really like IKEA. My dislike of IKEA was started by my dad. He bought a house and made it cool. This process included enduring hour after hour, weekend after weekend in IKEA. Although the hot dogs and licorice did lessen the boredom, it just wasn't enough.
My other reason for disliking IKEA is my love of second hand. We have done quite well in furnishing our house with things that other people owned first. It has been 8 months now though and I need a dressing table. I am a girl. I like putting on make up and doing my hair. I have sourced, from eBay and charity shops, the mirror, the jewellery hooks and a few pots which will make up the dressing table. But I cannot find the storage space I need. So when mother said she was going, I couldn't help but say yes. At least then it wouldn't be my petrol that was killing the planet.

Thanks mum!

This afternoon, when I return home, I will be finishing a poster and writing an abstract for a Doctoral Training Centre conference. It needs to be submitted today. It'll be fine!

The list of events, presentations and training I have to do before the end of March is pretty long and intense! I like saying yes to everything, so I need to start acting on all of my yeses!!

We're here, coffee first then let's go get some storage.

Sorry for no pics I don't know how to do them on the mobile app!

EDIT...IKEA can do no wrong, free coffee before 10!

Say No to Bee Beards

Seaside 2p gambling with Grandma

So, we're all back after our Christmas breaks. I think I might have switched off from work slightly too much, as I found watching 'Bee Movie' a bit arduous. Although, a little bee holding a placard with "Say No to Bee Beards" on it, was pretty cute!! I'm littering this rather work focused entry with photos from the festive period, so it feels more cheery!

FESTIVE

Back to the grind, with all my new resolutions on working harder, better, faster and stronger, that will hopefully stick with me past mid-Jan! I'm currently working on two particular aspects of my PhD. I am spending a lot of time getting frustrated with GIS and InVEST, two programmes that are going to help me plot the scale at which particular ecosystem services are performing within my research areas. I have worked with GIS a lot in my BSc, but unfortuntely not since then, and not an awful lot has remained in my brain. But I am getting there, slowly and steadily!

Stockings on Christmas Day

I am also writing a questionnaire with which I will be trying to get other peoples opinions on scale and the issues surrounding it in the planning and policy environment. There are so many rules, regulations and ethics checklists that I have to comply with which doesn't make it easy. There are also an awful lot of differing opinions on how best to ask questions. I feel that I will be calling on a lot of contacts in order to pilot the questionnaire, because real world feedback is going to be the only way to really know what is going to work.

Walking in Wales

So, alongside these two major parts of my PhD, in the next 6 weeks I have a poster conference, a 6,000 word document on what I've been getting up to to write, and 3 presentations to give. One of the presentations will be to determine whether my project is PhD worthy, or whether I should call it quits and be happy with and MPhil.

Hopefully no MPhil.