Blog update

Hi to all

First of all, a HUGE thanks to Ben Morales-Correa for picking things up where I left off, particularly as I gave him no notice and I was away for much longer than I originally planned. Many many thanks also to Kat Newkirk, as ever, for continuing to send me emails with news items on a daily basis. I would also like to thank Stan Parchin, Alejandro Jiménez Serrano, Noreen Doyle, Anthony Cagle, Mark Stott, George Stilwell, Chris Townsend, Rick Menges, David Petersen and Harry Robbins.

Second, I anticipate that I will soon find myself in a position where it will be difficult to guarantee that the blog will be updated on a daily basis. As many of you know my mother has been very ill on a long term basis, but has been having a particularly unpleasent time recently. I plan to visit my parents in Wales for shorter periods but more frequently. In addition, my postgraduate research has reached something of a head this term and I need to jump through various university hoops to see it on its way. In short, the next few months are going to be somewhat hectic and I anticipate that the blog will suffer somewhat. Anyway, bear with me and keep the news items coming! I'm not giving up the blog, just being a little less obsessive about it :-).

There are lots of news items below, thanks to Kat and the above-mentioned contributors, from the last two weeks. They begin with the "daily photo" post. Some of them are quite old items but I've added them in case anyone missed them elsewhere. I've tried not to duplicate anything that Ben has already posted, but no promises! I've posted as many as I have the time for today but there will be more tomorrow. I hope that I've covered the main stories but let me know if I've missed anything important.

All the best
Andie