Recommendations -

Been a while, but I'm back - for now.

I've had a great 3 months. Done quite a bit and I want to share with you some of the places that have played a part in these weeks away. It's a mixture of museums, restaurants and communities. They are not in any particular order, pretty much how my brain is.

The Beaney: Such a great museum, library, gallery, visitor's information point and café. If you go to Canterbury - definitely go and have a nosy around.
Facebook: TheBeaney
Twitter: @the_beaney

The Roman Museum: Another one of Canterbury's great museums, it's have a revamp since I last went and it's well worth a visit.
Facebook: CanterburyMuseumsandGalleries
Twitter: @CMuseums

Dover Museum: This museum now holds the Bronze Age Boat again. A team, including myself, spent a day carting display cases, glass panels, artefacts and information boards from 2 huge lorries up a flight of stairs to put the display back together again.
Twitter: @DoverMuseum

Canterbury Archaeological Trust Community Archaeology: I did my work placement with the Trust - great bunch of people! They are beginning to do day courses, get in there quick.
Facebook: CanterburyArchaeologicalTrust
Twitter: @CantArchTrust

Let Them Speak for Themselves Project via Up on the Downs: A great project put together to investigate, survey and record the 20th century defences found around Dover and Folkestone - community modern conflict archaeology.
Facebook: Up on the Downs
Twitter: Up on the Downs

Lyminge Archaeological Project: Run by the University of Reading, with the help of students, local volunteers and archaeological groups they are uncovering an important Anglo-Saxon settlement in Kent. Project started in 2008 and has continued seasonally, due to finish next year.
Facebook: Lyminge Archaeological Project
Twitter: Lyminge Project

Risan Mosaics: MONTENEGRO. Impressive remains of a Roman building in the Bay of Kotor. We had a very friendly baby tortoise showing us around!

Kotor: MONTENEGRO. A magnificent medieval town with superb defences - town walls that you can walk up. Do recommend not to do it during the hottest time of the day - but the view is certainly worth it!

Browns Coffeehouse: Despite the over-whelming amount of coffee shops in Canterbury - I do think this one wins. They truly love their coffee. Being a bit off the beaten track in Canterbury it takes you away from the city-centre and helps you forget the busy-ness of tourists and shoppers.
Facebook: Browns Coffeehouse
Twitter: Browns Coffeehouse

Deeson's Restaurant: Centre of Canterbury a superb British restaurant. The owners have a small-holding that they grow their veg and rears pigs on - they do a great pre-show dinner offer as well as a lovely bottle of pink fizz.
Twitter: Deesons Restaurant

Brockley Market: London. Awesome food market on a Saturday, lovely coffee especially after a night out!
Facebook: Brockley Market
Twitter: Brockley Market

The Orchard: London. A place that we've been to before, delicious food, board games and great atmosphere. Their pancake breakfast is yummy.
Twitter: The Orchard

The Gantry: Not far from The Orchard is another restaurant that I recommend - yummy fry-up and I've heard from a good source that their evenings are good too.
Facebook: The Gantry
Twitter: The Gantry

The Chocolate Café: Not far from Deeson's in Canterbury is this lovely rendezvous - used this regularly when I was in Canterbury. Serves a huge range of coffees, teas and, you've guessed it, chocolate based drinks! From another reliable source their toasted sandwiches and Eton mess are delicious (XXX)
Facebook: Chocolate Café

Fairport's Cropredy Convention: The annual get together in a little village outside Banbury in Oxfordshire. Music of all-sorts (mainly folk) - however this year - Alice Cooper! A-MAZE-ZING!
Facebook: Fairport's Cropredy Convention
Twitter: Fairport's Cropredy Convention

The Beaney, Canterbury - a few piccies from my visit

Stained Glass on staircase

Cabinet of Curiosities

Anglo-Saxon Kent

Buckle

Fish Brooch

Jugs, lamps and vases

Beetles

Four-pronged Roman Lamp

From the pages of a book #imagination

Tiles from Tyler Hill, Canterbury

Cup and saucer

 If you're ever in Canterbury, The Beaney is definitely worth a visit

A Tourist in Your Own Town

Sometimes you just need to get lost, disappear into the background and forget about other things that are going on around you. It maybe only for a while, an hour or so,  but you know if you do it can do you the world of good. Some lose themselves in a good book, a painting, a craft project, a film - everyone has their own preferred ways to vanish.
A couple of my favourite ways, other than crafting, are - sitting in a cafe with a coffee keeping me company and just watching the world go by  - and walking, anywhere really, a forest, the countryside, a park, the common with my husband and the dog.
Today, however, I'm going to do something different. Many of us take where we live for granted, especially if living in a large town or city. We moved to Gloucester over two years ago now and we have gotten over the shock of some of the most horrid (I don't usually use harsh words) shop fronts and forgotten places that are waiting for a person with a plan (and enough money) to do something.
Recently Gloucester was listed as the third in the top rated places in the UK for heritage (first was Oxford, followed by Norwich), but then an article popped up mentioning that many of Gloucester's heritage masterpieces are 'at risk' and that funding to care for such places is, well, not available.
Today I'm going to follow a heritage trail and blend into the background and lose myself in Gloucester. This heritage trail is my own route following the supposed Roman walls of Gloucester (pretty much all the remains are no longer and only a little is actually visible) and I already know that it's going to go by some 'not-so' pleasing heritage, and places that a normal tourist may turn the back to or bypass completely. Previous heritage trails have cut off a section of this route, and I think this is probably because of these areas that they detour via more significant and obviously visible heritage.
Time to grab my camera and disappear for a while.

What do you do?

So when I'm not working in a little shop in Gloucester, volunteering, studying for my Masters or dreaming about digging in a trench discovering past materials of a previous community. I'm usually doing something creative - recently making bracelets - and what I lovely surprise it is to get 'tweeted'.

Some of our makers are so keen they even make beautiful things on very special days - see the last 4 photos for... fb.me/10PQHDDKu
— Artsandcrafts Centre (@GlosArtsCrafts) March 31, 2013

Maybe in years to come, future archaeologists will discover my creativities......

Drug-like effect

It's hard to admit this but I'm an addict - didn't realise this until, until today.
Hello. My name is Emily and I'm an archaeology-ic.
(yeah - that doesn't really work).

Even though I'm studying archaeology at the moment, I recently caught the
'where the hell am I going with this' bug - a vicious little blighter than gets into your head and slowly causes a self-doubting syndrome. Not nice.

Today brought me back to life. At 1300 hours I walked through a doorway into a different world. A community dig. Despite being surrounded by strangers I felt very much at home; comfortable and happy.
Two professional and approachable archaeologists were running the show. Helping all the volunteers drawing, plotting, measuring, troweling, shoveling, bucketing, sieving, recording; we were all learning.

Loved it. I've got another dose tomorrow, but not sure where I'll go from then......