Beast

This rather intimidating beast is currently resident in part of the Tong Park meadow, rendering the search for orchids and butterflies not quite the calming experience it usually is. The look I’m getting here is I think the equine equivalent of, “Now stay out!” following a process where I’d effectively been walked out of the meadow by said horse. This bit of the meadow has usually been free of horses over the summer months, and what was a spectacular wildflower meadow with relict limestone species due to the underlying glacial moraine seems now in quite a poor state.

Elsewhere on my walk I watched some sort of hawker dragonfly over the dam, but couldn’t identify it in flight.  In the woods I disturbed a Clouded Border moth.

I’d spent most of the day in an external zoom conference on ‘Autism in Higher Education’. I was presenting, and unfortunately was in the last slot at 4.00pm so spent much of the event anxious about my impending talk and all of the tech issues in doing such things in these times. It was a good event on the whole, and I wasn’t the only #actuallyautistic participant which was a big help. I find going into this space of autism researchers and autism guidance tutors quite intimidating as it’s not my professional community, and it involves showing a lot more of myself than I would typically in a work event. But if I can make some contributions and interventions that make the university experience more positive for autistic students, now and in the future, then it’s worth pushing through the anxiety and exposure involved. And my contribution seemed to be received warmly. 

That brings to an end a very intense work month, chasing one deadline after another, so I’m taking a couple of days leave to decompress, crash and restore over a long weekend.