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I’d love to connect with other mature PhD students to share experiences. I’m 41 and just getting started researching citizen science in river health monitoring and restoration.
#PhD #AcademicChatter
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Kimberley
@Kimberley@ecoevo.social
mastodon 4.7.3Doctoral researcher in environmental citizen science and co-owner of a tiny coffee roastery in S.Yorkshire, UK. Owned by many cats. More questions than answers, always exploring. Occasionally post insects without CW so don't follow if you're bug averse!
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Joined December 30, 2024
Old account:
Wormerama
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Week 2 of my road being closed and the street has filled with kids on bikes. I don’t know how we came to prefer constant streams of noisy traffic over this.
It’s easy to feel despair at the state of the environment but I spent yesterday in a room full of people all trying to make one
river catchment better, tackling it from different angles and coming together to share what they’re doing and learn from others and it’s made me feel really invigorated and inspired. There’s people out there taking on these essential challenges so if you’re feeling the despair too, find them and join in.
Had a lovely chat with my neighbour out in the garden. He struggles to grow fruit and lost all his raspberries, I lack the patience for annual veg seed starting but my perennial fruit plants are very abundant so he offered to share his veg in exchange for some fruit. Between us we've got a good harvest covered. I like that rather than all of us trying to grow bits of everything.
Also traded some raspberry cuttings for well rotted horse manure from another neighbour.
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I finished the leopard jungle dress and I’m really pleased with it! It’s pattern 129 from the July 26 issue of Burda magazine. Thankfully minimal adjustments were needed; removed 11 cm from the length to make it a more flattering length for me, and replaced the drawstring with a simple tie belt so that I could have the option of keeping it untied with a cleaner look than a permanent drawstring.
I made my spouse look at the insides because they’re *so* neat
#sewing
My road is closed for the next 6 weeks as we're getting a new sewerage system installed to help deal with the flooding our village and the next village over experiences. This gives us 6 weeks of freedom from the rat runners, the boy racers, and motorbikers using the villages as their personal race track, and a fascinating engineering project to watch! And we get a free regular bus to town until it's all over!
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Apparently 3 wildfires locally in the last fortnight and the government alert is not enough to deter one of my neighbours from having a garden fire to burn waste
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Aftermath of the local nature reserve fire. We got lucky considering how much dry grass there is here. The fire was reported quickly and was near to an easy access point for fire engines, otherwise it could have been much worse.
#SouthYorkshire #UKWildfire
In other news: we have a pond (cat approved)
The natural pond unfortunately didn’t work out. We managed to slow the water loss but not by much, it was still draining after a week. In the end we went with a liner. Now to make it look more like a nice wildlife area and less like a big plastic sheet.
Pond is looking more pond-like and less like a big plastic sheet now. And I used an off-cut of the liner to make a mini pebble pond in an old trough in the back yard by the house.
#pond
Database of Insects and their Food Plants https://dbif.brc.ac.uk/homepage.aspx
This resource lets you search for specific insects (maybe those local to your area) and what plants they need as food sources, or you can search for specific plants and see what insects they attract
Finding a lot of these little hibernating buddies in my garden at the moment. I just put whatever they’re hiding under back and work elsewhere. They’re ruby tiger moth (Phragmatobia fuliginosa) caterpillars I believe
Alys Fowler will be giving a talk on peat bogs and the need for going peat-free in our gardens on 25th March in Sheffield. Hoping they'll also have copies of their book for sale too.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/talking-plants-tickets-1985103535111
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What I want to make is Burda 07/26 109 (sleeveless shirt dress, top left) in this fun leopard in the jungle print cotton poplin. But I know the chaos that starts to surround me once I get in to making something and then it'll all need tidying away again so I just don't wanna!
#sewing
I'm thinking of digging out a pond in my garden. I have a high clay content soil and a high water table, and really want to avoid a plastic liner if possible. A little worried that I'll put all the efforts in and then it won't hold water, although even if the really hot dry summer my garden soil still held moisture. Any tips on creating natural ponds? I don't have the budget for bentonite clay lining.
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Also Sheffield sustainability market takes place on Saturday with plastic-free sellers offering food and goods. I’ve made 25 totes from reclaimed fabric and if you attend you could win one in a raffle.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-sheffield-sustainable-market-spring-edition-2026-tickets-1977677721302
#sheffield #plasticFree
Who wants to see some peregrine chicks? 🙋♀️
The Sheffield peregrines have hatched 4 chicks and you can see their live nest feed here: https://digitalmedia.sheffield.ac.uk/media/Peregrine+Nest+Camera/1_7i0g32tu
There’s an ant party going on in some old dead leaves on my alchemilla mollis plant
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This one is on the impacts of citizen science on local communities and nature conservation
I miss good charity shops. My nearest are just filled with fast fashion that weren't great when first purchased never mind second hand. Is there anywhere (UK, middle or northern England ideally) that still has good charity shops? I'm willing to do a day trip for a proper rummage.
Edited to add I don't use Vinted, had a terrible experience with that app.
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@marsiposa@social.coop @Hellybootwader@mastodon.scot I eat the young leaves in salads. They have a mild cucumber taste. I don’t pull the leaflets off. The more mature leaves are too tough to eat but if you cut them back it’ll keep growing ew young leaves
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@Hellybootwader@mastodon.scot That's a great selection! I do want to try perennial veg as I only have fruit atm (well salad burnet and lambs lettuce that has escaped and self-seeded also)
@marsiposa@social.coop I have apple, pear, cherry, apricot, gooseberry, black and red currants, strawberries everywhere, and raspberries in a couple of different varieties that give a nice long cropping season.
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I have been meaning to repot my monstera for a while. Dusty clearly decided I’d put it off too long.
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@naturepunk I have heard elsewhere that Lichfield and Shrewsbury still have good charity shops so market towns in the Midlands could be a good call. Thanks!
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@Slash909uk@mastodon.me.uk i have a heavy clay soil so we removed all top soil and shaped and compacted the clay. It slowed down water loss a lot but not enough to permanently hold water.
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@wxhbxh@mastodon.nzoss.nz Here in the UK most fires are from after-market conversions and knock-off ebikes. I have a Tern GSD which has been fine for 5 years. Your country must have a safety mark scheme that you can check for products carrying it like we have the BSI mark?
Charging safes are supposed to be fire proof but I haven't tried them.
My ebike has very easily carried me (90 kg) plus 100 kg of cargo. Look for one that boosts when you first start peddling so you get going easily straight away.
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@RolloTreadway I think either Anki (index card app used for study revision but allows for tagging and sorting in to groups so can be easily adapted) or Obsidian (information organising tool) would work well for this. Both allow synching with a desktop version so you can keep a copy outside of the app
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@TheDonsieLass Ugh the whole recruitment process is so inhumane. Hope tomorrow is a little less shite for you