July Joy! 🌞

It has been a little while since I’ve written here properly, and I just wanted to check in.

Firstly… thank you. =) yay! 🌞





This past month has been incredibly full. Busy in the best ways, occasionally overwhelming, and somehow both exciting and nerve-racking at the same time. Summer feels like it’s stretching out in front of me now, full of possibility, and I’m genuinely excited for it… even if there’s a slight wobble of nerves sitting alongside that.

Some changes have been deliberate. Others have just quietly happened while I wasn’t paying attention.

I’ve also realised that some of my recent posts have become a bit formal.

That was never the intention.

I think months of academic writing have quietly rewired my brain, and I’ve started writing blog posts like essays. I’d much rather this feel like a proper catch-up than a submission deadline in disguise.

So I’m trying to come back to something more honest. More immediate. More chill...

Being snooty was never my intention on here! I just worried about my grammar so much that it happened!... sorrryyyyyy! 






I’ve been volunteering for a dig recently, and I feel genuinely honoured to have represented my university twice in different ways over the past week or so.

Not just in the more formal sense of being part of a project that was shared publicly I was so grateful that no one told me in advance what this was for, or I would have legit SQUICKED OUT sometimes ignorance is bliss! 
, but also in a quieter way that meant just as much... being trusted on site, working with children, and helping them learn how to sieve for small finds?

Both moments felt meaningful in completely different ways. One was visibility. The other was presence. But both carried the same feeling underneath: being trusted to show up and represent something I care about deeply.

That isn’t something I take lightly.

One of the absolute highlights was working with the children.

Teaching seven and eight-year-olds how to sieve soil and watching their reactions when something tiny appeared in the tray was genuinely heartwarming. There’s something very pure about that kind of excitement with no filters, no self-consciousness, just discovery. I was also trusted with something so early on academically? I felt honoured.... 

It made me realise I wasn’t just teaching archaeology.

I was, in a very real way, standing in front of my own younger self and saying: this is allowed to be fun, this is allowed to matter, this is allowed to be yours too. I also wanted to be a teacher tiny me would have thought was cool and relatable! We never had this when I was a kiddo! 

That landed more emotionally than I expected... They actually found things too! 



YAY! 







Life on site was muddy, tiring, and physically more demanding than I’d slightly prepared myself for. My knees were loudly in favour of kneepads, and I definitely didn’t pace things perfectly, which meant the occasional forced rest day.

But I also realised something I didn’t expect.

I actually enjoyed it.

Not as a permanent lifestyle. Not endlessly. But enough to surprise me. I love the graft of it, the soil, the sweat, the grime, the thrill of finding something... the mattock... 

There’s something grounding about it: soil, fragments, repetition, and the slow building of a bigger picture out of very small things.

If you do not rest, your body will sneak up on you.... fun fact.... 


At the same time, I’m learning more clearly what I can realistically do in fieldwork with CVID. That clarity matters more than I can easily explain. It’s not dramatic, just useful. I don't think I could do commercial for a bread and butter kind of gig... That said, I was capable of more than I thought i would be! 


Infusion day rolled around however, and I have been in bed recovering... drinking Lucozade through a straw and if I didn't have an essay to do I would have spiralled into productivity guilt by now.. So in a sad way this is keeping me sane... (I also have an unexpected crush somewhat lingering in there... not something I was looking for, but that human being fascinates me... That's all I am sharing for now.. a girl needs some mystery right?  Besides I have been alone since the diagnosis... turns out I got very good at shutting people out... Counselling has been useful for all of this! ) 




I have nerd friends! YAY! 





Also... peep the links.... "Mama I am famous".. just kidding...  Honestly, why does everything we do creatively have to relate in fame? It doesn't, like it shouldn't... cremation shards in a pit will do that to you, and make you start thinking about life, death, and everything... aka 

 "Don't deep it" ... 




With My Heart, 


Clare Alexandra <3

💟


Linkies, 

https://share.google/Nwyi0tedmKVPtGnci


https://www.welshcountry.co.uk/volunteer-archaeologists-uncover-roman-bronze-age-link/




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