Quite a bit of the week’s discussions have been around cultural heritage, how that is defined, protected and managed in Svalbard. Time with my trusty field assistant is running out, so we went on an excursion to go and experience some local cultural heritage…or did we? Gruve (mine) 5 was built from 1957 and extracted… Read More
Category: Field Work
22nd May – A little adventure
Thank you Aberystwyth Rifle and Pistol Club, today I was VERY glad that I had some practice with firing ‘big guns’ under my belt! We hired a rifle and escaped the confines of town a little way to go and see the Svalbard Global Seed Vault up close. Conveniently, this was on the way to… Read More
21st May – So what is Environmental Protection anyway?
Today I have been comtemplating this question quite a lot and had some very interesting discussions around it. I can say with some certainty and without causing too much uproar, that it can mean very different things to different institutions and individuals. From a surface glance, the tensions (or not) between the three ‘legs’ of… Read More
20th May – Changing states
It was only a few days ago I posted about ice and snow melting, but I’m going to do it again! It’s happening really quickly now, snow men there one day, gone the next. Channels of water appearing under, over and cutting through ice. The slabs of snow cleared at the side of the road… Read More
19th May – Mundane activities in unfamiliar territory
Today has been filled with emailing, ideas and preparations for the rest of the week’s research. In other words, like many other PhD days, I have been mainly sat at the computor. Like being at home, I sat at the computor at the library for a while, for a change of scene. There’s a great… Read More
18th May – Mountains!
Sunday, a good time for landscape loveliness. Glorious spring weather with stunning scenary that one usually only sees on TV/ postcards. It’s hard to know what to ‘do’ with these kind of views, sometimes it seems like some one just flew in a huge film backdrop and plonked it on the horizon! Stunning Svalbard -views… Read More
May 17th- Flags a-flying!
May 17th is Norway’s Constitution day, kicking of with a bang (well a few) at 7am this morning. The majority of the town’s residents and visitors were out and about for the parade today, with smart togs, traditional dress, hi-vis silver band, many flags and ‘hoorahs’. It seemed like a rightly happy occasion and holiday… Read More
16th May- Ice-slush-puddles
It is only a matter of time before Svalbard moves into full summer mode and the snow cover receeds. The ‘big melt’ is coming, in fact it might have started today with temperatures edging over the zero degree mark, (though I am holding out for more snow and re-freeze next week :)). Today we saw… Read More
15th May- Value beyond humans
Today was an amazingly clear, sunny day, in contrast to yesterday (though it has just come over white and snowy again right now!). It would be all too easy to post a beautiful, postcard perfect landscape shot…but not today at least, though plenty of those have been taken! Influenced by our latest lunchtime listening (a… Read More
14th May – aesthetics, contrast and feeling
Today was very white. A balmy -1 degrees C and snow all day, it felt a bit like Christmas! The skyfull of snow blended with the snow on the mountains and all views were turned to just white. Today’s photo got me thinking about a lecture from Michael Haywood that we listened to last night… Read More
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