Something awful has happened to Sutton’s Biodiversity team…
…It’s got me in it!
It’s Adam Asquith, by the way. Hello everyone!
I’ve been volunteering twice weekly with the SNCV for well over a year now, getting my hands dirty with everything from pulling ragwort, to pulling reeds, to pulling thistle, to pulling a muscle in my back.
Writhing on the floor in a pair of leaky waders after being thwarted by a tough reed may be enough to turn some people off their work, but it’ll take a lot more than that to keep me away. This isn’t a challenge, by the way, if the ancient and vengeful God of Manual Lifting Technique happens to read this.
Building up my knowledge of conservation work watching and listening to Dave, Mark, Alex, Joe and the other SNCV volunteers has given me a real passion to learn more and continue to work on our sites.
Having previously only really done office work under the iron thumb of ‘the man’, rather than practical, useful, tree-huggy (except when we chop ‘em down) work for the good of the environment, I can’t tell you how liberating and energising the last year and a bit has been. Genuinely, since being thoroughly accepted into the SNCV tribe, I’ve been happier and healthier, so cheers all.
The position of Biodiversity Assistant has been vacant since Joe Grainger’s departure earlier in the year to explore new pastures. With his blessing, I am to follow in his footsteps… Nice one, Joe.
Anyway Hi all, I’m Adam, the new Biodiversity Assistant. Adam the pun-slinging, wild food-foraging, mountain-walking, booze-brewing, music-making hippy.
…I normally just go by Adam, though.
…Also, I’m not sure I’m old enough to be a hippy.
Other than being the Biodiversity Assistant I am also a computer programmer/IT guy (I have to get money in somehow), and I play drums and sing in a doom metal band (cheeky link). Recently, we’ve been writing songs about how ruddy lovely nature is, if you can believe it.
If you don’t know what doom metal is, you may want to take the way I used ‘sing’ with a pinch of salt. ‘Yell’ or ‘bellow’ may be better words for what I do. I am fairly unlikely to burst into a heartfelt rendition of ‘My Delilah’ while working, you’ll be pleased to hear, but I can’t promise that I won’t start humming ‘Iron Man’. The volunteers will have to learn to deal with it.
Many of you reading this will know me already. Hello friends.
Those who I haven’t met, I look forward to getting to know you soon enough.
I’ll be updating the SNCV blog regularly in the future, covering the practical work we are undertaking and addressing the hows and whys of doing said work, deepening my own knowledge of it and hopefully yours too.
I’ll also post some in depth looks at certain species or groups that I find particularly interesting on a personal level (i.e. things I can eat), so expect something tasty popping up on here soon!
Cheers for reading,
Adam
