My time at the Macaulay Institute for Soil Research began in 1979 following an application to join the Soil Survey of Scotland as a soil surveyor. I was advised by the then Secretary not to get married, as this wouldn’t be at all compatible with survey life! Previously, I had spent the summer of 1977 camping on the Island of Rum, carrying out geological mapping and plant ecology studies as an undergraduate, so had some insights into a fieldwork career. This was in the days prior to the new pier (opened in 2004; before then passengers and goods used to be transferred from the ferry to a flit boat, the Rhouma, before landing at an older jetty in Loch Scresort).