Our habitat assessment and monitoring module where we do the new Phase 1 survey, Phase 2 NVC, we think about how to analyse ecological data in RStudio and this is our residential in the beautiful south lakes where we hit the woods, the mire and the sadly, rapidly disappearing saltmarsh

Alice, from Northumberland Wildlife Trust: “Helen, I’ve had a couple of applications from your students whom I couldn’t interview because they didn’t seem to know how to fill in an application form. Please can I come and talk to them?”
Me: “yes please! Covid year – we did have a session on app forms but it is not the same as when you guys come and meet students”
Theo (former student, Plymouth Council): “Helen the careers event you put on when I was a student was brilliant; it was so helpful for me. Please can I come and talk to your current students?”
Me: “definitely”
Alice: “I’ve got a couple of friends would like to come – ecological consultancy, and greening officer”
Me: “yes – and Georgie, former student, from Defra is also coming”
So:
– Alice passed on valuable tips and tricks regarding how to fill in an application form
– Georgie talked about competency questions
– we had Speed Interviews – 2mins to answer a Q, 2mins for feedback (a bit reminiscent of musical chairs)
– and CV cover letter workshops – where students showed the employers their cover letter examples
– the buzz is evident I hope from the picture of the speed interviews below

We joined the first Hepple rewilding/wilding project bioblitz looking at “Meg’s purple moorgrass and rushy pastures” (as we now call them). She is doing her dissertation with Marjorie from Natural England, characterising this under-described, under-appreciated (not by Marjorie) northern habitat. Getting our heads around the sedges again: flea, carnation, flaccid, common, tawny, yellow x2, common, brown – think I must have missed one

Meg and I had the tiniest taste of the gin, cos it seemed wrong not to …

… and I just spotted Ho Yin’s clever Twitter handle! His dissertation is on orchids, there were plenty of them too