It is extraordinary how hard it is to concentrate on the finickities of formatting and editing a very long bibliography!

It was so cute, today: spent hours gnawing at Varro’s etymology for ‘Aventinus’, then walked dog around the real-life Aventine, touring the shadows/echoes of the textualised sites and routes. Working in the midst of one’s text’s context is fantastic!

I think I’ve got my head around Varro’s ‘analogia’ now. Just about. Now the thing is to pin it firmly down with the next sections of what ‘Latin’ means for a Roman... Hmmm.

Just decided to do major restructure of Varro chapters 2 and 5 - it’s funny how the more one writes, the bigger the project gets. There must be a ‘law’ expressing this...

Back from fantastic Canada trip, lots of thanks to Siobhan McElduff and Cedric Littlewood for organising - looking forward to getting back to Varro, but having a day off to allow for jet-lag today. One day off is surely acceptable!

Dived into a whole array of non-Anglophone Varro studies at the AAR today. What a beautiful place to read and study.

I think it's not *just* being on leave that aids thought and composition, it's also being in the appropriate place. I'm finding ideas and words flow much better here in Rome than in other 'research' sites I've dallied in. Bk. Ch 1 now 2/3 done in draft which is major achievement!

Enjoying the luxury of 'thinking time’. First day for ages when I‘ve felt I may make the 1,000 words mark...

puzzling about Varro's stance on the 'First' Triumvirate, and how to walk the speculative line in devising a satisfactory story to tell about it...

Somehow the Summer has been eaten by mundane administrative tasks and other ephemera. Still, I have managed to make Book Ch. 1 start to look plausible, and I still believe in it!

Really getting properly zoned back into Varro this week - clawed together about 1.5 research days which is best result in over a month! But can't remember a summer when the stress/adrenalin levels were still so high in late July. Interesting times, in academia, as Bobby Kennedy almost said...

realising that 2 July looks like a more realistic target for putting my Research 'head' on... Actually made it to the library briefly this morning, at least!!

thinking that getting back to research must be very close - so close it's almost tangible. One more week, perhaps?

Just about done with marking, and feeling pleased with the brand new IAA website which has eaten much of my time of late... Especially pleased with the Classics and Ancient History part! A fortnight, now, perhaps, till I can get back to research. That's not so bad...

BH weekend: actual time to do research! How fabulous. No university email! And sunshine!

Thinking... Hurrah: thinking! Excellent to be over the big bump of 2 semesters of teaching - wishing that administrative issues could similarly develop an clear cut-off point every now and again in the year...

thinking about how best to sample from way too much interesting material for paper for Rome conference in May...I need to work out what a normal person who isn't me would find interesting about movement and language, and cut the rest!

looking forward to research trip to Florence next week. Visiting the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana for the first time (so I'll need to try to recall those palaeography classes I took as a grad. student...).

found some time today to think about a couple of upcoming conferences and what I'll say at them. Feels good to carve out even an hour or so from the moil of marking...

Rather glum to be en route from sunny/chilly Lubbock, TX - absolutely delightful people, food and conversation. Week 1 of term now staring me in the eyeballs.