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

I've just moved into my new abode at last. It's a lovely little place deep in the South Hams countryside. Basically, once you reach the back of beyond, take the road towards the middle of nowhere, turn left down a lane which has grass growing down the middle and eventually you come to one of those tiny forgotten hamlets in which this part of the world abounds. There you'll find my little place nestling within the bounds of my brother's palatial residence.

My brother informs me that it used to be a pigsty. Everyone seems to find that funny...

Oh, and thanks for putting that earworm in my head for the entire damn day

It could be worse. Ever heard the Wurzels' version?

Do you mean this one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdEG977vYm0

I rather like that I've always had a soft spot for The Wurzels Now I really, really want to see some episodes of Sunnyside Farm.

Congratulations on your new home, PF!

Being a city-ish girl now living in the country-ish, I can kind of-ish relate!

You forget one other -ish, Shea...



I'll get me coat

I love being out in the country. The night's so full of stars...

I love living in the city, but that's definitely one of the things I miss. I'm not sure that I've ever seen the Milky Way.

Oddly enough, I'm quite happy in the city too, particularly London. Maybe one can be alone almost as totally in the centre of the metropolis as out here in the back of beyond, and that's what I like.

It's quiet here, though. This evening it's almost silent apart from a Tawny Owl just down the little coombe in which our hamlet sits. The sunset was something special today too, the sort of colours you couldn't paint because people wouldn't think them realistic.

I think I mentioned to Rich that I've been watching a lot of old River Cottage stuff while I've been on holiday. That's sort of in your neck of the woods.

I've only ever once had a garden that I could grow vegetables in. The first year I grew a dozen soya bean plants, and the second year I had beetroot, carrots, broad beans, all sorts of things sprouting but I had to move out before I could get a crop I'm very envious of anyone who has they wherewithal to grow their own food, or catch it (or shoot it). There aren't too many places around here to go fishing for anything you could put on a plate, if I even had the time.

The Good Life planted the self-suffiency seed in me (no pun intended... and if you believe that you can nail soot to a wall ), or it might have been a programme called A House For the Future which was on around the same time - I'm not sure which came first.

It was about a family converting an old derelict farmhouse (plus, I think, a third of an acre) somewhere in Yorkshire into a smallholding and energy-efficient building. It was far ahead of its time in the green revolution. I remember they had solar panels on the roof made out of central heating radiators inside something like a cold frame, that heated the water when the sun shone because of the greenhouse effect underneath the glass, and there was some kind of a heat storage system under the floor that involved a south facing lean-to and some rocks.

There was all sorts of insulation in the walls, in the attic, even under the floor I think. I watched it avidly every Sunday. If I remember rightly, Brian Trueman (Danger Mouse, Count Duckula) was the presenter. I watched it avidly every Sunday.

And 35 years later the seed has yet to sprout

Well strap me to a tree and call me Brenda! It's amazing what you can find on the interwebs these days
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3314722/Time-for-the-credits-to-roll-on-a-star-of-the-future.html