As Mel said in the last post we visited Collins Glacier to set up Open Top Chambers (OTC). It is interesting to see how the moss and lichens are colonizing the ground as the glacier retreats. The moss beds are amazing, in some places it looks like a river of moss cascading down the hill.  There are a lot more moss and lichen species here than at Casey so we are learning new ones every day.

Sharon and Andrew travelled down on a Chilean Air force Hercules plane and arrived at the Chilean base on King George Island on Saturday night.  It was great to see Melinda, Angelica, Gustavo, Todd, Sarah and the rest of the team.  There are 12 people working on Antarctic plants and lichens here at the moment. On Saturday night there was a reception party to welcome us all to the  base and we met up with the other expeditioners over a few glasses of good Chilean wine.

We spent Christmas in Cornwall and made a Christmas tree out of plastic that we found on the beach at Strangles, a lovely beach in North Cornwall near Crackington Haven, with fabulous rock formations to explore.  You can watch the video we made on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsAMdrU3-sw

Yesterday we had pre-departure training at INACH ready for our flight to King George Island (Isla Rei Jorge), Antarctica.  We had a medical briefing and then a practical session where I got tied up (see photographs).  

Sharon and Andrew arrived in Punta Arenas yesterday and Melinda has already flown down to King George Island with Angelica Casanova-Katny, Gustavo Zuniga and Todd Rosenstiel and Sarah Eppley from Portland.

Today we collected our kit (warm, wind proof clothing) and tomorrow we will do a briefing before we fly down to the base on Friday in a Chilean airforce Herc.

Just back from a visit to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, Southwest of London. They are keen to promote the science behind the collections and the gardens at Kew and I went to give them some of my ideas as a teaching academic with some experience of science community outreach.

It's been a busy couple of weeks for talks. Last week I did two in Chile and this week I gave a research seminar at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Birmingham, and a talk about living and working in Antarctica to the Barnt Green Day Centre.  Thanks to the audience at both who asked lots of good questions.  

Congratulations to Rhys Wyber for winning the 1st prize for his PhD introductory talk at the Annual PhD retreat.  Thanks to Team moss at Wollongong and Barry Osmond to their help in getting him there while I was on study leave.   Way to go Rhys and I am sorry I missed it!

Here is Rhys giving a talk about his Honours work at SCAR in Auckland.

On Monday I gave a seminar to Professor Gustavo Zuniga's group at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile.

I am at the Annual meeting of the Chilean Biological Society in Puerto Varas in the very beautiful Lake District region of Chile.  Yesterday I participated in a symposium on Antarctic flora organized by Dr Angelica Casonova-Katny, Universidad de Concepcion, and Professor Gustavo Zuniga, Universidad de Santiago de Chile.