h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Am I ?

I love the sharp frosty weather, I get excited like a big kid, even scrapping the car windows and getting cold hands.It gives me that feeling of a white crimble have not experienced for years.
Also it kills off the germs that hang around in mild rainy climates.

Most of my workmates are moaning, hence the question

:: 'They're' all wimps :: I went up to the shops yesterday, just before lunch, wearing my shirt, sleeves rolled up as useual, and no coat.
It was just so nice and fresh outside... and everyone I bumped into aas already moaning about the cold and now its colder than it were then... so now they can moan
Though I do start wishing the hosue was a bit mor eheated/insulated whilst typing to type with fingers I can't necessarily feel the ends of

Cold weather can be fun, as long as it's not too windy.

We've not had any proper frost here yet.

TRiG.

We've had 'proper' frost the last two mornings; according to my Taxi driver yesterday, yesterday's morning frost was the first real frost of the year (as in he had to clear it off the windscreen etc first thing).
It was prety* chilli outside today when I went up to the shop at 11.30, but the sun was fab!; standing in the kitchen, by the long windows (floor to ceiling), and of coruse with the window closed, it was really rahter hot and it was still warm if you could get out of the wind outside, so long as you were in direct sunlight
Its that kinda hot autuminal sun that always reminds me of the Suffolk (and Norfolk), fens; startin off in the canoe 7 AM, frost covering all the reeds, and gradully a warm sun comes out; and of course feels all the more warmer than it actually is due to the frosted landscape, and then watching the frost all gradulally vanish as the morning moves onwards

2 legs,
I feel so 'chilled' after reading that(pun intended)

I have a clear picture of in my mind and I never canoed in my life.

The art of the Zen warrior is not dead.



R4

I miss canoeing and all the outdoor thingys I used to do; fishing, hiking or just walking leasurly about the countryside; In some ways especially when I was teenager and a bit old, its too easy to slag off your 'hometown' little town place... but really wwe were so lucky, a river on the doorsteps, a myriad of marshes and fens and the broads, woods, and of course where I was the sea just down the road too
I remember one trip in the canoe; We'd gone up the weekend before to a small village really, and left the canoe there, at a relitives house.
The next weekend we went up by train and canoed back:
This was oo the middle December I think; As we left the and embarked onto the river, the whole river was frozen over, about half inch thick ice.... And as we started the front of the canoe would rise up, then break through the ice, again and again; until we got a bit more into the main bit of the river and the water was at least free from the pack ice
The best bit of course, you start off frozen, icicles for fingers even with gloves, wearing shirt, jumpers, waterproof top and boyancey aid/lifejacekt.
Twenty minutes into actually getting going on the river, with frost and snow on the banks still, we're stopping and removeing the jumpers and water proof jacekts; as you warm up pretty quick with the canoeing and this was in Canadian canoes not kiacs damn I wish the radiator worked in this room, its tricky typing when you an't feel your fingers properly

2 Legs
Tis a true fact of life, you only appreciate what you have when it's gone.
I grew up in Birmingham, in an area called Tyseley.
Mostly factories but it did have the Railway and once a year the steam show
My other half laughed other day when she asked If I remebered steam trains (taking the mick). I was proud to say yes, even though it was only those in the shows.
Dr Beeching probably ruined our transport system when all that was needed was investment.

Anyhow, the closest have been to what you describe was a boating holiday on Norfolk broads aged 11-12yrs. Remember finding a small place with country lane leading to a deserted beach.Thought at time, how nice it must be to live around there. That was not in middle of winter though
Grass is always greener and all that.

Lucky enough to spend most summer holidays in Dorchester/ Weymouth, at least a week,with elderly grandparents.Fond memeories of Portland Bill ,Chesel Beach, lulworh cove and Sandsfoot gardens, amonst other places.
Won't go back it's been too long and the places will have changes so much. Treasured memories, only lived up to these day's by New Zealand's North Island landscape

Happy Days
R4

Yes, all to easy to take it for granted when you live there.... living in an area that others choose to come to because of the beaches, the fens, the waterways, and when you're actually living there, you just wonder why on earth people are coming to 'our poxy little tiwb; for a holiday
I guess you can take the boy out of the fens but not the fens out of the boy; I still find the fenland countryside the one I like the most, all that flatness, and bleekness at certain points down on the coast And yes, veyr lucky, as a kid having the beach, the river, the broads, the marshes and woods just outside the back door...