More Glorious Mud!

More Glorious Mud:

On the Sunday after returning from Spain, we were out doing fieldwork again...
The good thing was that I seemed to have brought the sunshine back with me – Yay! Our trip was mainly focussed on examining a submerged forest in the intertidal zone of the Thames at Erith and Purfleet.
We were accompanied by a mixed group of geographers and lapidary/mineral enthusiasts from Kent and Essex. Among them were some old friends ‘S T’ and ‘N C’ who I hadn’t seen in years, which was a really nice surprise!
Now I’ll give you a question: What does an eminent Quaternary scientist do before eating his packed lunch? Only read on if you have a strong constitution...
He sticks his finger in a brown, slimy layer that has accumulated on the surface of the river mud (see photo), smears it across his palm and says with an excited look on his face: ‘Jerushah, look at this!  I think we’ve got live diatoms here...  Either that or it’s raw sewage...’
...And in answer to the question posed in the title, actually Kent Mud and Essex Mud are exactly the same, as the submerged forest extends from one side of the Thames to the other.
Pictured here is my illustrious research supervisor  ‘Dr BAH’ with my main mini field assistant ‘S,’ plus  ‘R’ and ‘D’ from the Essex GA.

J’s record of the week: 

Don’t forget, last time I promised two songs for this week, and as I’m a woman of my word  I thought  I would provide you with ‘something old’ and ‘something new’ so here goes :

Something old:

‘Let’s do it again’

by

The Staple Singers 

This week, I was bored on my way to work and put my iPod on shuffle... As a result I discovered this little gem of a song, full of sensual lyrics and the sweet harmonies that only families of singers can seem to create. It was a hit in 1975, when it reached number one in the US chart. Guess what ? It was very apt, because being an extremely catchy song, I listened to it, only to play it again immediately after !
 Innocent Jerushah says  ‘Of course that’s the meaning of the title !’

Something new:

‘The Time (Dirty Bit)’

by

Black Eyed Peas

This song was released last October, but for reasons only known to myself, I’ve only just discovered it ! I downloaded it last night and I’m really looking forward to dancing round the living room to it (which will hopefully not be too embarrassing for ‘S’ ) later. Haven’t got round to listening to the rest of the album yet, but I’ll let you know how I get on ! Enjoy reliving those Dirty Dancing bits everyone ! Jerushah X