My earliest interests in fieldwork were spawned from a schoolboy passion for hill walking on trips organised by my two biology teachers, Ella Bryce and Sandy Robertson. While biology was not part of the deal, there was obviously a subliminal message sinking in. I then had the privilege of doing biology at the University of Stirling in Scotland, where again my enthusiasm was stoked by official field courses to Millport (where I met my wife) and Loch Rannoch, and in between times, unofficial ones run by the Students’ Biological Society to Durness in Sutherland. Students don’t seem to organise their own field courses now, unfortunately. This overall experience must have worked because I gradually transferred from a biochemist to a card-carrying plant ecologist; eventually doing a PhD in physiological ecology. The PhD was meant to be centred on a garden experiment, but I soon expanded this to do fieldwork. What I really liked was that you could study in great places and get paid to do it. This really did open up a career option.