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

I'm in Florida (weather dull) and noticing that you are online and apparently writing from Wales and it would be 4 in the morning there. Insomnia or night shift?

Or you've been to Wales and aren't there now and are actually an
American with affiliation to the USMC, about which I am doing a
research project. Either way, sir/madam, your mountain climbing entry piqued my interest.

Bravo your kids; it's wonderful when they don't know they should be daunted by such things. I took my first 5-mile hike when I was six, by tagging along behind some grownups. Yours sound like a terrific family.
Lil

Lil

Thanks for your note. I was online in Wales but not at 4.00 am - fast asleep after walking in the Black Mountains.

The previous week I had been in LA and it was very hot. I think that as a Brit I am genetically coded to prefer mists and mellow fruitfulness at this time of the year and waterfalls in the Black Mountains in sunshine but cold was wonderful.

I've just moved to Southampton from Wales and I think I'm going to miss the snow this winter - fat chance of any here!

And I'm in Florida. Even less chance than a proverbial snowball.

Lil

We'll try to get down to Wales early in the New Year. Snow on the hills and small chidren wrapped up very warm, then a drink in the Blue Boar and home to open fires and cider!

There's more to Wales than just rain and sheep

In my office I have a map of the world - one the shows the UK over to the left of the landmass of Europe - and next to it a 1" map of the Black Mountains. They represent what I love about h2g2. The global and the local. Here more than anywhere else I have seen, with the "living guide" at its core, we are building a community which is both local and global.

The mountains in Wales lift my spirits to think about them.

R.

After 15 years of living a few hundred feet above sea level, I had almost forgotten what mountains were like until I went to New Mexico last month. Mostly gentle mountains, like yours in Wales, but in a far dryer climate. The town of Lincoln nestles in a pass formed by the Rio Bonito, so one has tall rounded hills on both sides. I walked around the town early on a Sunday morning -- it's so quiet you could lay down in the road -- ending up in front of one of the historic buildings. The only sound was some ceramic wind chimes in a desultory breeze. I would love to live there.

Lil

One of the things I'd really like to see in H2G2 is a map of the world and/or individual countries with dots/links for each researcher. Just to give us a perspective on where everyone is. I would do it myself but it would be very time consuming

This forum is making me nostalgic now. I'll have to make a small replica of the Black Mountains out of my rice to console myself.

If you've got a map of the Black Mountains, it's probably got my house on it Well, my parents house now, I suppose.
It's on the west side of the Black Mountains; look for a lake called Llangorse Lake, which is shaped like a kidney bean or Africa or something. Just south of that is a village called Bwlch ( http://www.h2g2.com/a158690 ). Between Bwlch and Llangorse there's a hamlet called Cathedine ( http://www.h2g2.com/a158717 ). I live between Cathedine and Bwlch.

I used to sale on LLangorse Lake with my father. He's a little old for sailing now - I've almost certainly driven through Bwlch on my way to the Lake.

R.

Reply to Lil too - thats a lovely image - "so quiet you could lie down in the road."

Especially when you so kindly repair the grammar!

I'm going back to New Mexico in the Spring and take a longer look. My thoughts about moving there are verging on the serious. Mountains, mm.

Lil

I would love to live there....me-thinks nows a good time to ask Lil..how she feels about, love and living...