Hey Blog! I hope you had a happy 2021 and are looking forward to this new year. I wanted to be woken up at midnight going into 2022, but when my parents came to wake me, I was in so deep a sleep that even turning my light on didn’t wake me up!
As it is the new year, I also have new learning. We have started a new maths programme with White Rose Maths, I have started a “Cities” geography class, and also an “Into the Orchestra” course with Harriet Rose the Cardiff violin teacher.
In addition to these educational tasks I have been doing some archaeology top trumps from the Derbyshire Scout Archaeology badge. My Mum is the badge team’s Resource Co-ordinator, one of the top five roles, so I’m quite proud. (It also means I can listen to what is going on with the badge…) I’m really into archaeology and have been ever since I liked history and digging holes, which is a looooong time. The top trumps are all about famous archaeologists, like Mick Aston from Time Team (one of my favourite TV programmes) and Thomas Bateman, who was born in Derbyshire. In the evenings we are currently watching “Digging for Britain” which is my second favourite archaeological TV show.
Once a month, I meet with my local YAC (Young Archaeologists’ Club) group – the Peak District group. We are about 20 in number, and our base is supposed to be Ilam, but we do travel around quite a bit. If you are interested in joining a YAC group, go to https://www.yac-uk.org/ and you can find your local club there. A few years ago I sent in an article to the local archaeology magazine and they put my picture on the front cover. The following year, the front cover photo showed visitors at an archaeological dig site which I had been to, and although blurred, I made it on to the front cover for a second time! I’m trying to go for a hat trick with the front cover, but I very much doubt that that will happen.
My favourite thing about archaeology is the real hands-on thing: the digs. With YAC, we only do them once a year, but in the summer I quite often do a test pit in the garden. I have not found anything much yet, and the things everyone wants to find are usually once-in-a-lifetime experiences, but they do happen and I keep my trowel in my desk at the ready.
