a dry spell...

For one reason or another, or even several, there's not been much going on here at blog central. I suspect I lost my creative mojo. So until it returns, here is a rundown of highlights since my last post from the Southern Hemisphere:

• Our flight back from Argentina which had been cancelled was re-instated the following day. So we did get back in the end. Minus our suitcases. But there were definite advantages to not having to schlepp them across London as we made connections back up to York. 
• Xmas gifts, which had lain unused while in Argentina, were plugged in, charged up, and enjoyed to the max - why my brother and sister-in-law saw fit to give me a cut-your-own-hair gadget remains a mystery. The rather handsome man in this video of the aforementioned gadget is not in fact me. Oddly, he doesn't actually look like he needs a haircut. But then, as anyone who is familiar with my follicularly challenged scalp will know, I generally don't need a haircut either. 
• The house was much as we'd left it, except for the garden, which had been covered in snow when we'd left. Seeing the grass for the first time in a couple of months was a little strange. As was the dead fish in the middle of the lawn, and the equally dead, but not quite as decomposed, squirrel which quite literally dropped from the sky as we were having breakfast one morning. Squirrel and fish were given a ceremonial eco-burial... i.e. they ended up in the green (for recycling) Wheelie bin.
• Work-wise, not much to report. The journal is in fine shape due to the amazing team of Associate Editors, and Debbie, who kept the wheels of scientific publishing turning while I was traveling through Patagonia. And while in Argentina I did manage to write the 1st draft of a grant proposal. But since getting back, I honestly cannot point to a single thing I've achieved in these last three weeks. Evidently, I should go away more often.