Bookish and Not-So-Bookish Thoughts is a weekly blogging event hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. It allows book bloggers (and non-book bloggers) to write about pretty much anything, bookish or otherwise (i.e. sharing exciting plans for the weekend, rants on things they've encountered during the week etc.)
1. Hello everyone, I hope you´re all doing well and enjoying autumn! My life is rather busy and stressfull at the moment (see 2), but here and there I've been finding time to enjoy the beauty of this season, if only during my commute to and from work! Here, have a picture of the view from my livingroom window, it's quite nice if I say so myself!
2. Well, the last few months of my PhD have started. In fact, my original contract would have ended on October 31th, but I got an elongation, so now it ends on January 31th. I´m busy writing, writing, writing down all my findings of the last 4 years into articles and that´s not always easy! Many of you are writing yourself, so you know some days the words will flow from you and some days you spend mostly staring at a blank screen. Those are frustrating days if you´re on a deadline I can tell you!
And, as you know I´m not a native English speaker, so sometimes I struggle with finding the right words as well. One thing I especially ran into lately is when to use ´that´ and when to use ´which´. If anyone of you has a good resource which clearly tells me what the rules for this are, I´d be really happy!
3. Luckily, I can alternate my writing time with time spend behind the microscope (I need lots of pictures to illustrate my findings). I love microscopy, I love how it gives me an insight into how amazingly complex our organs (well, I watch chicken's organs, but you get the idea) are. It's almost like I get to be part of a secret world. Here, have one of my favourite pictures. The bright pink cell is one that I'm studying!
4. In a previous 'Bookish things' post, I told you about my windowsill gardening. I got some tomato seeds from friends and planted them, but it was already rather late (June, I think?), so I was not sure if anything would come of it. But, I'm glad to report, I got a small harvest of tomatoes! I think the sunny weather we've had the last few weeks really helped and the fact that my plants don't have to deal with wet weather. I'm definitely going to try this again next year!
5. Now that the cold season has begun, I started to wish for a rug in my living room. I have a wooden floor and that can feel quite chilly sometimes. So, two weeks ago I bought one and here you can see the result! I was a bit doubtful at first about the colour (too light?), but I'm growing to like it more and more and love how cozy it is.
6. You might know the YouTube channel of CPG Grey, who posts funny and instructive vids about all kinds of subjects. His latest is about English royalty and a real treat to watch IMO. And a question for my fellow period-drama lovers: do you also get most of your knowledge about English royalty from all the movies and series you've watched? Because while I watched this, I was thinking of all my favourite productions that featured these kings and queens!
7. Talking about period drama, I'm enjoying Downton Abbey's last season so much! Only one more regular episode and the Christmas special and it's over.... That's a sad prospect, but I'm happy to say the series really ended on a high, because the writing for this sixth series was very good, much better than series 4 and 5. Dear American friends, you're in for a treat when the series comes your way!
8. Oh, and Doctor Who! I'm really enjoying this season, almost to my own surprise. Since series 5 I've only been so-so about the show, sometimes thinking about giving it up. Then, last year with Peter Capaldi starting as the Doctor, I began to enjoy it more and this series... it's just one great episode after another, I'm thrilled! Anyone else watching?
Oh dear, I just realized there is nothing bookish in this post. Oops.... must try harder next time.
Three cheers for Downton Abbey! I cannot wait 'til my copy ships. I'm going to be recapping it for one of the sites I write for so I'm excited about that and will be curious to read other's thoughts. :) Hope life is less stressful for you.
ReplyDeleteDoctor Who has been wonderful so far this series. Any favourites so far? My post is going up later this month but I especially loved "Under the Lake"/"Before the Flood" =D Peter Capaldi continues to marvel :)
ReplyDeleteBest wishes with writing your dissertation! May your days be filled with endless words and ideas and a lack of blank computer screens (I totally understand the whole blank-screen thing, both while writing research papers and otherwise) ;)
Yay for autumn! =)
That's a difficult question, I don't think I can answer that before the end of the season. But, the Zygon double episode was very good I thought: I do love present-earth episodes and I really liked the different settings (not just England for a change!) and the speech of the Doctor in the second episode was amazing. I totally agree; Peter Capaldi is wonderful!
DeleteAnd thank you so much for your kind words Lianne!
I haven't watched any of this last season of Downton, but definitely excited to see where it goes. :) And yes! I do get my info on English royalty from the shows I've watched! I know that a lot of it is dramatized, but there's got to be a bit of truth, right?
ReplyDeleteBelatedly catching up on old posts, so am curious. How's the writing going til now? Well, I hope? And you've only a month left! How does that feel? Scary, but awesome? :)
I literally just finished watching the very last Christmas episode of Downton, now it's really the end.... I hope you get the chance to enjoy this last season very soon!
DeleteThe writing is not too bad actually. I have a hard deadline now: 21th of February the whole thesis has to be finished, at the latests, and it's going to be hard work, but I've made a planning together with the professor and that gives me confidence!