Hi all,
I have been a member for a while after I met Ed Seeley (virtually) at "Apistogramma forums" , and noticed the UKAPS banner in his signature. I did lurk for a long time, partially because I'm a very low tech fish keeper and having only recently returned to fish keeping after many years away, and it took a while to have a look at much of the equipment (and plants, fish etc.) that had become available.
Plants have always been part of my life, I came from an agricultural back-ground, and after a variety of manual jobs I studied Botany at University, before working for a large commercial nursery and eventually ending up at Bath University doing some research on whether Spent Mushroom Compost had a future as a component of potting compost (it didn't). Since then I've worked as a terrestrial ecologist and also in a lab. where we work(ed) on the biological reclamation of landfill leachate. I now look after a small lab and glasshouses, although my future in Higher Education is not looking very bright at the moment and whilst my lack of contract work has given me the time to contribute to this forum, unfortunately if it continues for very much longer I'm likely to be out of a job.
I was really flattered to become a "UKAPS expert" (I know I'm not really an expert) as a lot of the discussion on this forum is both very interesting and informed, in fact in many ways more scientific (and academic) than much of my day job.
cheer Darrel