It's back to the home desk for me today, after spending a wonderful long weekend abroad. The little conference in the Czech Republic was thoroughly nice, with lots of friendly people and interesting topics (even though most of the costume topics were a little later than my main interest time). The only thing I regret is that I do not speak or understand Czech better than I do; as it is, I can order dumplings, tea or coffee, but I probably won't understand the answer. The lovely people at the conference, however, took great pains to supply me with translation of all the talks of the day - no mean feat, and something I greatly appreciated.

My presentation, as well as that of another speaker, were also translated for the benefit of the audience, which for me meant cutting out all the bells and whistles and asides and extra jokes that I normally insert. It has never become as clear to me before how much of all that is in all of my normal presentations that are not stripped for easy translation.

And now I also know Prague a little better than before, having had two long walks through the city; I have had the traditional Wenceslaus sausage (that I love) and sampled several different Czech sandwiches; I have been stuck in a train for more than three hours due to several accidents on the track all happening in one afternoon; I have also learned that not only plain Czech coffee is very different from plain German coffee (something that can be well expected), a Czech Latte Macchiato is also very different from the German (or even the Italian) one. But the most beautiful thing to become aware of (again) during this trip? Laughter is international, and you do not need to understand each other's language to be able to laugh together.

Sometimes, it seems to take ages until Friday arrives - but then in some weeks, it seems as if it's Friday instantly. And this was one of these weeks.

That is surely partly due to my cutting away some of the normal week length by travelling. Tomorrow is the Clothing Seminary in Zlin where I will be speaking about crafts, experimental archaeology and spinning, and I'm already looking forward to this very much - it will, I hope, be a very interesting meeting.

And next week it's back to writing article and working at the home desk, with a nice hot coffee and all autumny colours outside the window. This is a good time of year to sit indoors, read and write! (The cat, by the way, agrees. Not with the reading-and-writing part, but with the sitting indoors part; there are mornings now when she thinks it's enough to take a little sniff of the cool outdoors air and then settles back for another nap.)

Nobody can do research without money. Because researchers, like all other people, need to sleep (preferably somewhere dry and not too cold), to wear something (yes, really) and to eat something (not only chocolate, though it should be in there somewhere if you ask me). And all that needs some money.

If you are more or less involved in museums, archaeology research facilities or similar institutions, you will know that money is always scarce there. I remember being a student helper when I was still studying; we'd get paid for doing necessary preparatory work for papers such as taking and sorting slides, or helping when there was a conference. There was scarcely enough money to pay for the work that really needed to be done. Nobody doing a phd would have a chance of getting paid from the Uni - either you got funding somewhere else, or you were self-funded. You had a chance to get a work space (as in "a table") in one of the department's rooms, though they were limited, and you had to bring your own computer.

There's no law that says good research cannot be done with a low budget. But a low budget is severely limiting research in several ways: time, resources, possibilities, presentation.
Someone researching topic X with no money for it has to provide not only for the necessities of life, but also for the research. Books and articles are expensive, as are trips to libraries further away. All this has to be paid for - or our researcher has to do without. Time has to be spent on other, paid work. No funding also means little possibility to use newer analysis methods. And finally, no funding as in "you pay for going to that conference* all by yourself" means fewer possiblilties to exchange knowledge and experience with other researchers, limiting not only that one person's research, but also its impact. (Even worse when the conference has no funding and thus publication takes ages and ages and ages. Ask me how I know.)

Why am I writing all this? The next summit of the EU heads of states on 22-23 November 2012 will be a decisive step in determining the EU research budget for the next seven years. The conditions are not favorable: the financial crisis has put severe constraints on the national budgets and several countries, in particular the "net-payers", are demanding cuts on the total EU budget. Research and innovation will compete with other policy priorities.

Fourty-two Nobel Laureates and five Fields Medallists (something like Nobel, but for Maths folks) have written an open letter urging the EU to keep funding research. This has turned into a petition that you can sign here - and then join me in hoping this will be enough to keep the EU from cutting budget.

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* The conferences are not as pricey as, say, medical conferences usually are - but still: you need to sleep somewhere, you need to eat something, you need to get there and back again, and pay the conference fee. Conferences (and I so love going to them) are one of the big spending points in my budget.

Summer is over, all the leaves are turning into colourful leaves (except those that have died of the cold already, like the morning glory in the garden), it's getting cold in the evening and the night, and my consumption of hot caffeinated beverages... no, it's not more frequent. But that's not due to the weather.

Things, otherwise, are progressing here as well: The achilles tendon of the most patient husband of them all is slowly healing, the heaps of washing after the season have been cleared away, the bookkeeping has been done, and I am in the middle of planning sessions for conferences and other activities in the near and middle future - among them a trip to Cardiff to the experimental archaeology conference there.

Just now, however, I will take a few days off. Things have been rather hectic around here since before the Textile Forum, and now that the most urgent stuff has been dealt with, I will take a little time to regenerate. I will be back on the blog on Monday.

Since the Dyeing Experiment at the Forum went so well, Heather Hopkins and I are considering to present it in Cardiff in January next year. Which means a trip to Cardiff - I've never been to Wales before, and being quite fond of Dr Who and Torchwood, this is even more of a reason to go there.

Today, though, the first (and actually most important) thing on my list is to wrap up the bookkeeping for the quarter and send off the VAT forms to the tax folks. Work I love... not, but sadly, it's necessary. (Good thing about it? Having to send off the forms forces me to keep the books up to date and well sorted.)

And while I'm sweating about little numbers black and red, you might enjoy this:

There is a digital charter archive sponsored by the DFG, online. I don't know how good the English translation of the page really is, but the charters are not English anyways... the database seems to be searchable, and they are working on expanding it with more items. Go see the "Virtuelles deutsches Urkundennetzwerk" if that sounds interesting to you.

Since I was speaking of Cardiff: The call for papers for the Experimental Archaeology Conference is still running, so if you want to participate, you have until November. More info is on their blogsite (I'd say website, but it runs on blog software).

Going to Cardiff = travel. Travel = interesting topic. Archaeologik has posted a picture of a medieval arterial road without firm surface, and I think it looks spectacular.

And finally, making access to unavailable and out-of-stock books possible seems to slowly spread - which is a totally wonderful thing! The book that I last heard about is this one:

I'm at the Textile Forum this week, and thus there will be no blogging. Since I will be away from home for a few more days after that, blog as normal will resume on September 25.

Meanwhile:

The Textile Forum is from today to Sunday, September 16; the programme is here. Day passes are available, so please drop by to meet other textile persons!

On the weekend after that, there's the official opening of LEA, where I will be showing wool preparation and spinning techniques.

There are still some places left for the embroidery workshop in Erlangen on the 27th of October and the 28th of October 2012. Here's the link for more information and booking.

And finally, Maney Publishing offers free access to its Journal of the Month, the European Journal of Archaeology, until October 15. All articles from the last three years are available.

Enjoy!

It's getting cooler and slightly autumny outside; the sunlight has a different, more golden colour in the afternoons, and it is actually nice again to stand in the sun and having it warm oneself. It's still quite dry here, and during the day it gets warm enough (or even hot), but summer is definitely coming to an end.

The Forum, on the other hand, is about to start. We are looking forward to an interesting week with lots of discussion and practical stuff about historical textile techniques, and if you can and want to come to Mayen for a day or more, day passes are available and you will be very welcome!

As for me, I will finish the last preparations and start packing for the event today. Hooray! It's almost starting!