mountainear

Some years ago (way back when ?), we had a tea towel on which cartoon cat Garfield proclaimed: 'Woof-woof, everyone should learn another language!' How funny was that?

From the same school of dish towel philosophy the words ' A stranger is a friend you've yet to meet' have lately come to mind....

For on Wednesday that stranger, Dan Levin, strolled into our lives bringing a breath of fresh air, freedom and good ol' fun. In despair at the election of G W Bush to the Oval Office, Dan quit the USA - his travels to be funded by the sale of toilet paper. A brilliant scheme which has the 884 remaining days of the Presidency to run.... and opportunities for travel to Europe, North Africa and beyond. Jealous? Moi?

So I guess for the foreseeable future where-ever he lays his hat - that's his home

Dan Levin met Dan Bevan in Edinburgh - and to cut this long story short - accepted our passed on invitation to stay here with us in Wales. We do apologise for the fact we're only about a kilometre inside the border! - and that the weather was so grim - we needed rain, but not this much and now. The landscape was as beautiful as ever though; dramatic, expansive and inspiring. Purple heather was in bloom and we picked bilberries on the Stiperstones, staining our lips, tongues and fingers blue.

Here's Dan with a somewhat phallic monolith on Stapely Common - part of the stone circle that is Mitchells Fold:

Good too to sit round a table over coffee or a bottle of wine, putting the world to rights and getting the bigger picture. Perhaps we spend too much time at the end of this low mountain?

Dan Levin, I can't begin to tell you, after 3 short days, how much we miss you now you're gone. Au Revoir.