Travel

💻 This week I’ve been starting to work my way through feedback on the first full draft of a paper that I sent to my supervisor before Christmas. I got to the point where I was really stuck with it, so I’m glad to be able to start moving forward with it again. That said, I’m definitely having moments of “what’s the point in these results? Are they even interesting or useful?” Swipe across for some cool looking clouds I saw on my lunchtime walk, while peeping birds. 🏷 #PhDChat #AcademicChatter #Researcher #PhDJourney #GradSchool #ResearchPaper #WomenInSTEM #WomenInScience #PhDStruggles #ipreview via @preview.app Alt text: image 1 - a laptop on a white desk, with a white keyboard in front of it. To the left is a purple marbled mousepad with a white mouse on it, and a clear water bottle. In the background you can see a black and white cat, and a monstera plant. Image 2 - grey clouds over a reservoir. The clouds look like folded fabric.

📚I’ve read so much over the winter break and it’s been so relaxing. @dazlarr66 gave me A Richness of Martens by Polly Pollar for Christmas, and I whizzed through it in just over 24 hours. It was such a wonderful book. I’ve posted a full review on my blog if you want to learn more - link in bio. Any nature book recommendations? #ARichnessOfMartens #PollyPullar #WildlifeBooks #NatureBooks #NonFictionReads #BooksBooksBooks #BooksAndCoffee #NatureWriting #BookReview #BooksRecommendations #ipreview via @preview.app

🦦 I had the best wildlife encounter of my life so far today. @dazlarr66 & I saw an otter near our house over a year ago. Every time we’ve been near the river since then we’ve taken a minute to see if we can see one again, and no luck. ⁣ Today, I was rewarded for my perseverance and watched this otter catch a lot of fish for around 45 minutes & Daz joined me towards the end. When I took this photo, it was so close I could hear it eating. Interestingly, it sounded the same as our cat eating a piece of chicken, so there’s a sound you can recreate at home if you have a cat. ⁣ Otters are one of my favourite animals (I love the marvellous mustelids), and it makes me so happy to know they’re living so close by, even if I don’t always see them. Alt text: an image showing an otter in the River Dee, Aberdeen, eating a fish. ⁣ 🏷 #RiverDee #Aberdeen #BeautifulABDN #Winterwatch #NatureOnOurDoorstep #BritishWildlife #Otters #LutraLutra #Mustelids #BBCWildlifePOTD #EarthCapture #WildlifeOnEarth #Otter #OttersOfInstagram #OtterLovers #BritishWildlifePhotography #WildlifePhotography #UKWildlifeImages #Scotland_Greatshots #EscapeTheEveryDay #Explore_Scotland_ #IGScotland #Sigma70300 #ShareMySigma #CanonUK #MyCanon #ipreview via @preview.app #OutAndAboutScotland

📚My 5 favourite reads of 2021: 📖 Disasterology - Samantha Montano 📕A Richness of Martens - @pollypullar 📗Tools for Surviving a Storm - @notsoquietgrrl 📘A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson 📙Down from the Mountain - Bryce Andrews ⁣ I wrote a blog post going into more detail for each book - link in bio if you want to read it. What were your favourite reads of 2021? ⁣ #Disasterology #ARichnessOfMartens #ToolsForSurvivingAStorm #AWalkInTheWoods #DownFromTheMountain #Bookstagram #NonFictionReads #2021Reads #BooksWorthReading #BooksBooksBooks #NatureBooks #WildlifeBooks #NonFictionReads #NonFiction #ipreview via @preview.app

📷 Good afternoon wildlife watching to end the year on. The redwings have arrived in the trees near our house, saw a seal fishing in the river near us too (not sure how far inland seals come?), and there were birds a plenty on the reservoir, including a little grebe! This is the first grebe I’ve seen - I watched it for ages while it fished. Check out its floofy bird butt. ⁣ Happy New Year when it comes! ⁣ #LittleGrebe #WildlifeWatching #BirdWatching #BBCWildlifePOTD #RSPB_Love_Nature #BirdsOfInstagram #CanonBirds #BirdLovers #Winterwatch #BirdPhotography #WinterWildlife #365DaysWild #BritishWildlife #BritishBirds #ipreview via @preview.app

🦆Did my first non-PhD writing in MONTHS. I wrote a blog post (only my second this year) about seeing goldeneye & teal for the first time with @dazlarr66 the other day at Donmouth Local Nature Reserve. Link to the blog is in the bio, but DM me if you want the direct link to the post. ⁣ The photos aren’t the best but hopefully I can upgrade to a better lens in the next year. ⁣ #Goldeneye #Teal #Donmouth #DonmouthNatureReserve #DonmouthLocalNatureReserve #TealDuck #UKNature #Birdwatching #BritishBirds #ScottishNature #NatureWriting #ipreview via @preview.app

Since being diagnosed with ADHD I’ve been trying to be kinder to myself when my productivity goes haywire, but it’s hard. I reckon I’ve done about an hour of actual work so far this week, which is incredibly frustrating because I love my research. I just want to finish writing this paper draft! ⁣ I know that trying to force productivity doesn’t work for me and makes things harder, so I’m trying to “go with the flow” and spend time watching videos about writing papers so at least it’s not a complete waste of time. Any tips? ⁣ #ADHDer #ADHDAdult #ADHDWomen #Neurodivergent #PhDStudent #PhDProblems #GradSchool #ResearchStudent #PhDJourney #ipreview via @preview.app

Spent the day hyperfocusing on sewing this project bag for my knitting - I managed to find the most “me” fabric I could ever wish for. Swipe across for a wee video showing how it was made. Materials: 🪡 Kato project bag pattern by @kandoucrafts 🪡 Fabric from @minervadotcom: - Outside, strap, and pockets: cotton canvas fabric navy blue (this is the woodland animal fabric). - Base and cord case: Soft Cotton Duck Canvas Fabric in Forest - Lining: Plain Polycotton Fabric French Navy - Interfacing: Vilene G700 🧶 Drawstring cord: Macrame Cotton Cord 3.5-4mm in Dark Caramel from @cosyyarnsuk #KandouPatterns #KandouCrafts #ProjectBag #KnittingBag #YarnStorage #KatoProjectBag #Minerva #MinervaFabrics #SewingProject #SewingPattern #CraftyLife #MakersGonnaMake #AnimalFabric

Today I had my third “compete against your friends for who had it worse during a global pandemic to win a funded PhD extension meeting.” And I’m so frustrated. Swipe across for relaxing river views. ⁣ Essentially, there hasn’t been enough money made available by the organisations who fund PhD students to pay us to cover the extra time we need as a result of time lost due to covid. Now, universities and DTPs (Doctoral Training Programs - they organise training for PhD students who belong to a DTP) are being left to try and figure out who’s had it worse during the pandemic and needs extra paid time the most. This is stressful, asks us to be really vulnerable (in a situation which can be toxic), and it’s demeaning competing against your friends to get paid for doing your job. ⁣ As a DTP PhD student, I’m definitely in a better position than students who don’t have a DTP, international students, and self-funded students, but no PhD student should have been put in this position. ⁣ We couldn’t work for mental and physical health reasons, couldn’t go into the lab, or carry out field work. We can’t just make that lost time up. In the U.K., most PhD students get paid £15,000 a year, so most of us cannot afford to do our jobs for free. ⁣ I think you’d be hard pressed to find a person (and now I’m talking about everyone, not just PhD students) who hasn’t been let down by at least one institution/organisation/company during the pandemic, and I’m mad about that all over again. ⁣ #PhDChat #PhDStruggles #PhDProblems #PandemicPGRs #ResearchStudent #DoctoralStudent #GradSchool #WomenInSTEM #StudyCommunity #PhDStudent #PhDLife #ipreview via @preview.app

For the past two years, I’ve been doing quantitative research (dealing with lots of numbers and statistics) so it’s been fun to switch to qualitative (looking at words, and generally includes a lot less stats, if any). If any quantitative researchers have some advice for coding transcripts, or want to share some resources you found useful please do! ⁣ I’m still looking for participants for my study, so if you’ve been to Banff National Park in the last 5 years while living in Europe and want to talk about your trip, how you planned it, and how you used social media before, during and after your trip drop me a comment or a message to find out more. Thanks to @mougioua who spotted I’d got qualitative and quantitative the wrong way around 😂🤦‍♀️. ⁣ #PhDChat #PhDResearch #QualitativeResearch #SocialScience #QualitativeDataAnalysis #WomenInSTEM #PhDJourney #GradSchoolLife #DoctoralStudent #ipreview via @preview.app