Final post for now

Yesterday the sun shone and I spent the whole day in the garden--and now I can feel all my muscles.

Today I have exactly 6 months left of my PhD.

I spent the morning arranging travel arrangements to Aldeburgh to visit the Britten-Pears archive for the 7th and 8th of April, the last major archive trip I think I'll have time for before the PhD finishes (quite an effort by public transport, but possible!).  (The picture is taken in the garden of the Library, with Mitchell whose four volume Benjamin Britten: Letters from a Life is pretty much my text book).  I've also been ringing Royal Mail trying to trace a package including the Collected Poems of Henry Reed which I need for an article for British Writers, and arranging handouts, visual aids and paperwork for the class tomorrow. And I've been looking at the jobs on www.jobs.ac.uk.  

Looking back over the last month I see I've written more than 10,000 words of my thesis, finished another chapter, spend lots of time using on-line resources and spending vast sums in bookshops (particularly on CDs--including the utterly fabulous Dylan Thomas Caedmon Collection, 11 CDs of the bard's symphonic recitals of his own poetry and others'), but no time in the library.  I've been to a conference, been on holiday, and arranged to go away again to an archive.  I've done hours of admin, and tidied up my study four times--but of course you can still barely pick your way into it via the piles of books, papers and desks.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and have bought what my husband calls 'the pedant's guide' to proof-reading, OUP's New Hart's Rules.   

I hope this research diary was helpful for you, it has been interesting for me!