Pleasing

[liv]

Today I gave a talk to my department (about 40 people whom I know more or less well). I summarized the main thread of my PhD work, and it went really well. People asked good questions and were complimentary about the presentation, and I'm generally really happy about it. It's not news to me that I'm good at public speaking, but I'm proud of today, and that's making me feel good about my thesis work in general. Yay.

(Boss S said that if it were up to her, on the basis of that talk I should be a doctor already. Which is rather sweet.)

And it snowed heavily this morning and continued on and off throughout the day, so by the time I got home Dundee was looking exceptionally pretty in the twilight. I decided to skive off my thesis briefly and went out with my camera to take photos.

The view from my front door:

Snowy town scene with cool lighting:

More snowy scenes:

And a couple of sunsets I'm quite proud of:

Comments

[wyntarvox.livejournal.com]

Wow. Those are some beautiful photos, Liv!

[liv]

Ee, thank you! I'm still getting used to the camera but I'm starting to have a better idea of what I can do with it. And instant web publication (well, nearly instant, except that FotoBilder decided it didn't like me on the first try) is a very good thing.

[usuakari.livejournal.com]

The last two I especially like. What time is sunset over there at the moment?

[liv]

The last two I especially like.
Thank you! There are some nice sunsets around here, and the colours look especially dramatic with snow.

What time is sunset over there at the moment?
Round about half past five just now.

[usuakari.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Later sunsets than I was thinking they might be. Sunset is at about 19:30 here at the moment. The year's definitely on the turn, even though February (normally) is the hottest month of the year.

I've just been reading some of Lillian Beckwith's stories set in the Hebrides, where she describes long twilights in Summer, and equally short periods of daylight in Winter. They're a bit further north (and west), I know, so I was curious.

[liv]

Well, we are two months from the solstice already. In late December sunset can be as early as 3 o'clock even this far south. The Hebrides are quite a way north of here, and at this latitude even a hundred miles can make quite a bit of difference in day length. I come from not far outside London, and I do find the extremes of day length around the solstices a little weird still.

[usuakari.livejournal.com]

The Hebrides are quite a way north of here...

Remember you're talking to someone who finds the idea of a country where you can drive from end of to the other in anything less than a week mildly weird. :) I drive 150 kilometres (roughly 93 miles) to get to work each shift that I spend playing with the ambulance service.

That being said, the fact that 100 miles can make a noticeable difference to the hours of light and dark is interesting.

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

Niceness! I'm glad your thesis is shaping up, it's been a beast for long enough. Hugs.

[liv]

*hug*! Thank you, badger. To be honest it still is a beast in a lot of ways, the thesis, but it hasn't much life left in it.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Well done on the talk. *smile* Snow here is about knee-deep on me in the non-cleared bits, and the bank at the end of the street is over my head again. [ "Ou sont les neiges d'antan ? Over in the corner of the parking lot getting smaller and sadder and blacker daily." ]

[liv]

Well done on the talk. *smile*
Thank you. *hug* It was fun, a really good break from thesising. And I shall recycle it more or less wholesale for my viva talk, so it's all good!

Snow here is about knee-deep on me in the non-cleared bits
It was about 6 inches here first thing in the morning, but I wasn't out with a camera first thing in the morning! No big drifts though.

[ "Ou sont les neiges d'antan ? Over in the corner of the parking lot getting smaller and sadder and blacker daily." ]
Yeowch. Is that yours or a quote?

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

[ "Ou sont les neiges d'antan ? Over in the corner of the parking lot getting smaller and sadder and blacker daily." ]
Yeowch. Is that yours or a quote?

It's mine, inspired by an Australian acquaintance whose first experience of snow in reality was grubby melting piles in Minneapolis at Easter a few years back. Three years in a row there's been corners of snow like that here almost but not quite to my birthday at the start of May.