Newcastle 365: Week 5

Written by Jess Friedman
• October 19, 2014

Things I learned this week:

Honey Bees are really, really cool
Swans think they are sneaky
Sometimes missing the bus is okay
Battenburg Cake is delicious
Sometimes, microwaves and glass don’t get along
If your neighbor burns his dinner and sets off the fire alarm, make sure you pee before you leave the building because you might have to hold it for a while. (Just kidding.) (Sort of.)
There are multiple species of earthworms
Why skinny jeans are a necessary evil
Why there are cows in the city parks
How to play “Conkers” with horse chestnuts
Grad school is awesome. (I knew this already, but it’s nice to relearn it on a daily basis.)

I took some stale bread to the boat pond this week and made friends with some fowl creatures. The seagulls were catching bits of bread out of mid air, and the swans were trying to sneak bread out of my hand without me noticing. (I noticed. They’re kind of hard to miss…)

Doing laundry here is a struggle when there are 3 washing machines for 286 residents… But the best part is having warm slipper socks to put on when you’re done!

Apparently, Mars had a near miss with a comet today. At least that’s what the funny Italian man at the Virtual Telescope had to say during the live broadcast of the historical event. If you missed it, you can watch it again here. (Spoiler Alert: The comet misses. Shame. That would have been exciting.)

A close up shot of honeycomb on a beehive primer — I attended the introductory session for the beekeeping group at my uni, and learned so much! I will try to do a post about it soon, and I’ll have lots of cool resources for you guys. I’m so excited to learn more about bees and beekeeping this year.

I was sitting at my desk doing some homework on Monday and caught a glimpse of this strange creature out of the corner of my eye. Scared the dickens right out of me.

I was supposed to go to Scotland on Saturday, but I had the wrong time and missed the bus. 🙁 But since I was in town with my camera and my schedule had unexpectedly cleared up, I walked down to St. Andrew’s Church to take some pictures of the lovely cemetery. I’ve got plenty more, so there will be a post all about it soon.

Another beautiful day for a field trip to Nafferton. This time, we were learning about soil quality indicators. My favorite? Counting earthworms. Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head…

Oh, and P.S. I’m going to Portugal in December. Say whaaaaat?!

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Jess Friedman

Jess is a Canadian-American who’s always ready for the next adventure. She loves all things living, always has a million creative projects in progress, and polishes her nerd badge daily. She is passionate about helping families make and preserve treasured memories that strengthen bonds across generations. You can read more posts by Jess here.

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Tagged with Animals, Beekeeping, Birds, Churches and Cathedrals, Leazes Park, Newcastle, Newcastle 365, OFFPS, Wildlife

4 Responses

Aunt Kathy says:

October 19, 2014 at 11:15 PM

More about the necessity of skinny jeans please.

Reply
1. Jess says:
  
  October 20, 2014 at 5:08 AM
  
  Haha, I was hoping someone would ask about that one! I wasn’t a fan of the look, but then I noticed that when it rained, the cuffs of my jeans would get wet and soak up water until they were wet clear up to my knees. The girls wearing skinny jeans don’t have that problem. They could also stuff their jeans into their wellies on field trips to the farm, while I was left looking like a goober or I came home with dirty pants. Kind of defeats the purpose for wearing wellies… So I bought a few pairs and found them quite nice in the aforementioned applications. I still can’t bring myself to wear them with regular shoes, but they’re great with boots and I’m even starting to like the look of them on me. With the right shirt, they’re surprisingly flattering.
  
  Jeggings, on the other hand… I still can’t believe people actually wear those…
  
  Reply
Rebekah says:

October 26, 2014 at 7:19 PM

So cool, Jess! I’ve been behind on your blog, but I caught up tonight. Everything looks amazing, I’m glad you’re having such a cool adventure. And studying SUCH A COOL and important topic. Go save the world, roomie.

Reply
1. Jess says:
  
  October 27, 2014 at 12:04 PM
  
  Thank you! I will certainly try to save the world, haha! 🙂
  
  Reply

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