I was born and brought up in Northampton, a small manufacturing town in the English Midlands. My parents were very active physically, and we spent a lot of time outdoors. Family holidays were spent either camping by the sea in Pembrokeshire or in the mountains of North Wales. I always loved flowers and gardens. I remember discovering at an early age the wild-flower identification pages in the back of my father’s ‘Readers Digest’ road atlas. After studying maths, physics and chemistry at school I went on to take a geology degree at Exeter University and followed that with a Postgraduate Certificate of Education in Outdoor Education, at St Mary’s College, Bangor. After a short spell working at Eskdale Outward Bound Centre, I found a job teaching maths and geology at Highlands School in Halifax. I then discovered Opera. This absolutely blew me away. I managed to get accepted on a postgraduate performance course at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester which led to a career in the theatre, singing with the Bayreuth Wagner Festival Opera, with Scottish Opera, and for many years with Opera North in Leeds. There comes a point as a singer where you know that you have started on a downward trajectory. My husband had the opportunity to go out to the Falkland Islands. I accompanied him and spent two years volunteering with Falklands Conservation and learning about South Atlantic marine life at the Falkland Islands Fisheries Department. I was given the chance to go on a Fisheries research cruise in the South Atlantic and spent a lot of time in remote places monitoring penguin and albatross colonies and making acquaintance with the Falkland Islands flora. On my husband’s retirement we moved to North Wales and built a house in the mountains of Snowdonia. We have a few acres of hillside and every so often I would decide that it was time to get my head around the mosses. I had a copy of Watson’s ‘British Mosses and Liverworts’. I would collect a specimen and peruse the book. I would work through the key and then discover that it only grows on limestone in the North-West of Scotland. Watson would be put back on the shelves for another six months to wait for another day.

Enter Lucia Ruffino and the North Wales Non-Flowering Plant Group. There was a one-day workshop advertised by the Snowdonia National Park Society, within running distance of my home. I forgot to book, but I decided to turn up anyway. I arrived in the rain. Lucia took pity on me and allowed me to stay, and I was hooked.

The British Bryological Society AGM in 2018 was held in Llanrwst, again within running distance of my house. I was invited to tag along and following that I plucked up the courage to attend further workshops and field meetings in the following year. I received a lot of support and tuition from long-suffering experts, and I am gradually building up my taxonomic skills. I have spent copious amounts of quality time with different bryologists over the last few years and I love the companionability of ranging the mountains with others. There is great satisfaction in having a reason to investigate hidden corners in the landscape and I really enjoy the challenge of trying to interpret the ecology. I became Vice County bryophyte recorder for Caernarvonshire in 2021. A year later I took on the role of ‘Meetings Secretary’ for the BBS and got involved with organising a ‘National Moss Day’ to celebrate the BBS Centenary. I am proud to be a part of the BBS and am committed to carrying on its traditions to the best of my ability. There is so much to learn that I will never run out of challenges. When I have become a bryophyte ‘expert’ I may start on lichens, but that is not likely to happen soon. If I work very hard at the mosses, I may be ready to start on lichens by the time I am, say, about 105!!!!