vivdunstan

Our garden that is. It's taken until now for it (1) to be warm enough for me to sit out for any reasonable length of time, and (2) a warm sunny day when I'm not doing something else, even in another city as on the Capercaillie concert day! We were out from 4.30pm-6.30pm, when it was pleasantly warm, with a little breeze. Martin got our folding table and chairs out, in our usual excellent spot.

Martin sat with me for the duration, happily reading, and intermittently taking photos of planes and birds in our garden. We also had seagulls flying overhead at just 3 metres! From below that's rather terrifying, like seeing a giant plane from below whoosh overhead at speed. But we were more surrounded by sparrows, blackbirds, chiffchaffs and wood pigeons. Oh and #notourcat Isla was curled up, tail swishing happily, in the garden nearby.

I had a first tentative go at sketching. Very rough, very rudimentary, but I was enthusiastically trying it. Looking forward to doing it more. It's about 45 years since I've seriously drawn anything ... I also took out my latest society magazines from the Tolkien Society and Sherlock Holmes Society of London. And was reading a recently published book of charming paintings around St Andrews. And planning various other bits and bobs.

We’re very proud that Martin’s PhD supervisor, Ursula Martin, has been upgraded from a CBE to a DBE in the King’s Birthday Honours. Ursula was an excellent supervisor for Martin, patient and encouraging. She was also a huge help to me, both as an undergraduate computer science student at St Andrews - having a female CS Prof in the early 1990s was gobsmacking for me - but also after I had to drop out of my CS PhD, and more recently.

Thoroughly deserved, and especially good to see given that some of her achievements as a female groundbreaker in CS have at times been overlooked by male colleagues.

Now up to 51/53 of the year entries chosen and filled. Was highly amused when I mentioned before dinner to Martin that I'd just added a "certain programming book". And he knew immediately which one it was. Kernighan & Ritchie's The C Programming Language. Which was a life saver in 1991/2 during a particularly problematic (lecturing wise) portion of my computer science undergraduate degree at St Andrews.

Oh my goodness. Martin has just decided to cut the grass before dinner. He's a very infrequent grass cutter. Which is nice for wildlife, including a virtually resident not our cat, and also the ecosystem. But he still needed to do his first cut of the year. Now underway. It will be many many weeks before the second one 😜

Heads up for fellow academics as well as other authors. I'm not a prolific published academic, but at least two of my academic journal papers (on Scottish book history and library history) have been pilfered for AI training purposes. All done without my permission. You can search for these at https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/search-libgen-data-set/682094/

Lots of academic papers (co-authored) from Martin on there as well. And loads by my historian and computer scientist friends. It's also amusing seeing author namesakes. I now know which academic with a similar name (my maiden name - I have some early published academic work under my maiden name) is publishing prolifically about healthcare and medical matters! That Academia.edu keeps emailing me unhelpfully about, referring to "Vivienne Dunstan"!

On the way home from my bone density scan at Perth Royal Infirmary we called into Gannochy Duck Pond in Perth. Martin was particularly hoping to see their mandarin ducks - a very unusual thing to see in Scotland. The mandarin ducks were there but staying largely under cover, though he got some pictures. But there were lots of other birds to photograph. I especially liked this photo of three mallard ducks, with loads of interesting reflections in the water.

Had a very weird dream this afternoon while Martin was taking books and magazines to the charity shop. It started off as a music theory lesson, in a wynd off South Street, St Andrews. Then the pair of us went to various old bookshops, including Quartos (much missed), and then (very not real!) an academic rare bookshop in South Street, towards Jannettas, which sold occult books. As I climbed higher up the floors the books in the shop got older and older, and on each floor a door would open out onto the street in the past. I then got involved in a mystery about a 17th century book and its owner, while a murderous taxi driver from the 19th century was chasing me through time. Even Dr Dee got involved in the story. And then, rather sadly, I woke up, and boggled Martin with the tale of my dream 😜

Just binge watched - at a bit of speed in places! - the last 3 episodes of Wednesday season 1. Martin is also now watching it, though a bit behind me. It's been odd for him seeing snippets that he'd already seen me watching, and learning where they fit into the story! Anyway yes, I'm all watched up. He should be soon. A second season has already been filmed.

It's very much a teen drama, but I liked an awful lot about it. Especially the gothic feel. Jenna Ortega did a great job. I was also surprised just how dark the last few episodes were in terms of content. But yes, very much enjoyed, and looking forward to the second season.

Back home from the V&A Dundee now. Really enjoyed the Kimono exhibition. We could turn up any time to get in, with our new joint memberships, and the V&A staff handled that we hadn't got our member cards in the post yet. I came away from the front reception desk with a freshly printed temporary membership card, and they will look into the missing cards (I'm thinking Dundee East postal depot backlogs!). It was incredibly busy when we got into the exhibition, so much queuing needed to get around the different sections. Slightly anxiety inducing for infection phobic us. We dodged a few obviously coughing or sneezing people ... And we skipped some bits that were of less interest. But I saw all the bits I really wanted to see. I was especially interested in the early history and some of the related artefacts on display. Plus kimono pattern books and drawings and paintings from the 18th and 19th centuries. I was agog at those. I only had a few things I struggled to see from my wheelchair because of height/arrangement. More of a problem was navigating around the fellow visitors, who were so engrossed that we'd often have to very clearly alert them to wheelchair coming through. I needed a horn! But we both enjoyed it and are glad we went. And just outside was the Dundee Tapestry exhibition still, which was also attracting lots of visitors, and we were happy to go round it. Bought stuff in the shop after - which is still a bit too much of a squeeze with a wheelchair, though somewhat improved after my feedback a year ago which they acted on. Then coffee and bagels lunch at the kiosk/van outside. Very glad we made it, though I won't be surprised if the same thing happens as last time we went there, and we've picked up an infection (was Covid a year ago). Fingers crossed not though!

P.S. Martin just said he could have done with fewer physical kimonos on display. I also found some of those some of the less interesting elements of the exhibition. But as he said, if you went to a kimono exhibition and didn't see lots of kimonos you would probably be justifiably disappointed! But overall the balance was good.

P.P.S. Have just emailed the V&A Dundee with some feedback on the Kimono exhibition, including how it was much better for me accessibility wise than Tartan, and also to thank them for improvements they have made re accessibility in the shop. Which they did after my feedback a year ago.

I was awake a little today, so managed finally to go through some old things Mum gave me recently. Including many old photos. Lots of little me at school, especially primary school. Lots of Borders Schools Orchestra things, including a photo of us all. Lots of 1978 Melrose Festival photos - I was a train bearer. And some lovely graduation photos of Martin and me in 1994. Here's one of the more informal graduation photos. And after that is a photo of my granddad at the top of Melrose Abbey. He was the last in a long line of family beadles or church officers. Who, among other things, rang the abbey bell regularly.