Soil / Geology / Restoration / Lancaster University 

John and I were at school together too many years ago to think about - he introduced me to Neil Young and I introduced him to Jethro Tull. I'm still a fan of both. 

As kids we already had an idea of our interests - his was geography and rocks and mine was geography and trees. An inspirational teacher probably gave us license to think about both. Roll forward 40 years and John is now a professor of Soil Science at Lancaster University - we are both still mates and enjoy getting together for walks and talks. 

We met on a cold early spring day in a wild valley in Cumbria and talk about old times as well as our overlapping work in difficult spaces trying, where we can, to bring people together, to mend soils and restore biodiversity.