Hello, Valedhelgwath. It's nice to meet you! Will you spend some time with us?

Oh, 2004? That's a lot of time. Good to know you didn't abandon the place completely.

Are you a sailor if I may ask? That's interesting.

Oh my word~ Val, the esteemed council member I have longed to hear from. You have NO idea how many times I read your bio. And all the posts I read, oh how I wish Grondy were here tonight, he would be so pleased to have you, our real mariner back if only for a moment.

I thank you from the bottom of my Elvish heart for coming by. Please give my regards to your family and if you get a chance come back and share some thing with us.

I'm a fishery officer/marine biologist. This involves me going away to sea fairly frequently for short periods either on patrol or conducting surveys. I'm currently conducting cockle stock assessments in anticipation of a coming fishery.

That's incredibly interesting if you'd ask me! And it sounds like a hard work too. Glad to meet you, biologist - officer - tolkienist!

So one of our phoenixes rise from the ashes it seems. How dare you call yourself a "traveller"? Val you are always a sight for sore eyes. And I have to agree with Thorin, great stories you have written in the past now I just need to check out these new ones....

Gimli is right, you are first council and to be revered and honored for all time on this Middle-Earth. Somehow when I think of you despite your description of what you do, I see you as Cirdan  the ship builder, a master of his trade. Because you wrote and wrote which is to me building images and stories word by word, I see you as that rather than just a mariner , i have always seen you as that. And the vividness of your picture made me feel the mist of the water as the wind hit it, feel the wood of the ship under you, and hear the gulls above your head. It has just stuck with me.

So happy to see you Gimli, I love your posts.

Back home for a day to top up on fuel and water - hopefully another three days at sea and the surveys will be finished.

Thank you all for the greetings and kind comments - I really do feel humbled. It makes me regret drifting away like I did.

Thank you, Thorin and Gimli. I'm pleased you enjoyed the stories. I hope the three later ones aren't too disappointing. By the time I wrote those I was writing scientific reports fairly regularly to the detriment of creative writing. I do have a final one from 2007 as well that never got put on my site (I lost the passwords to update it). It's about Aragorn and Gandalf sharing a conversation around a campfire one peaceful evening prior to Frodo and Sam leaving the Shire. While I've been told I write a good Dwarf story, my own favorites are the ones with the rangers in. I'll try to post that one somewhere for you.

Thank you, too, Leelee for your kind words. Don't underestimate your own contribution to this site though. It is you, Ama, Vir and Loss who have helped Taz keep this site running long after myself and the early council members drifted away. You have all done the site proud.

Very pleased to meet you, too, Indis. I've enjoyed reading your recent posts. I've not had time to delve into any of the recent conversations with any great depth, but I look forward to familiarizing myself with some of them in the coming weeks and joining you in them.

Physically, the job's not as hard as when I used to be a fisherman, but the hours can be quite long. This past trip we were starting about 3:30-4:00 am each day and not finishing until about 9 or 10pm. I'm a bit of a slave driver at times, but we have to work by the tides and the weather. I find time flies out there though, so it only seems like we are doing a normal 8 hour day.

Greetings, Valedhelgwath. I too have read some of your works, and it's quite good, I must say.

All I know is that you're a council member, but I hadn't seen any posts from you (not sure though), during the time I've been a member of this site. Oh well, I originally registered over five years ago, but then I left and returned over two years ago, if my memory doesn't fail me.

Anyway, I'm Oerath, or Oerath Windsoul, artistically, and pleased to meet ya.

I'm a writer, maybe a bit of a poet and a musician by myself.

Thank you Val. I've taken a look to the site and read about your job. Interesting.

Regarding to what you say about the boat being a boundary with the world. I understand you well, it's good to have a place where you can be apart and take a breath. I use to travel abroad when I have a long holiday and the 3 lasts years I've been travelling alone. At first it scared me much (as the sea, other places on firm soil can be also terrifying) but actually I find those travels as a break in my daily life and a period to know myself better. I suppose your job, also give you those peaceful moments. Enjoy them!

@ Valedhelgwath: Heh, more than just a few, since I've been writing for a very long time, and I've also shared most of my works during the past 2+ years on this site. Some journals, some stuff there and there, and since the re-activation of 'Do you have a poem' thread, I've been doing write posts constantly, from page 4 to it's current page 16.

That's a little more about it.

Oh, your poor wife, how painful--outside our front door, three years in a row, was a huge black widow and it was frightening because their venom can kill if allergic. We finally got rid of it, sadly, i hate that but it had to be done for the little one's sake, she would put her hand out to a pit bull if she felt to.

I suppose in some instances being away can indeed keep a marriage fresh; one does not take advantage of the marriage. But some people have a terror , a disorder in which separation is terribly hard to bear. In that case one would have to have some sort of emotional help or resign herself to making baskets at the hospital!

Whales are indeed wondrous, we have a few type on the west coast here, an hour away by plane or nine hours by bus or six by car. Even narwhales . My father owned a restaurant in the province of Alberta where i lived until graduation (Alberta is totally rat free by the way). He loved packing us up the last day of school when his holiday started each year. i would always look with longing at the other children on the street, just playing, living, having their own home to come to each evening.  We would pass through the province I live in now, semi arid with both lakes, world class skiing up on the mountain , and rattle snakes and a few scorpions, plus a single two mile stretch with temperature and humidity like the riviera and where we grow world class grapes and win award after award for the wines. Then on to the coast, cross from the mainland to an island and there to stay and camp . We would go on the ocean in costly rented boats, fish for wild salmon and then back at camp clean and pressure cook them for our restaurant. My father figured out once it cost about ten dollars a tin but people would reserve tables months in advance to taste the fish, it was lovely, I loved the sea, hated the smell of the fish and the ceaseless cry of the gulls, their bickering over fish heads and entrails. And then we would have to go to another island and dig for clams, bring them to the camp, put them into fish aquariums, add cornmeal or whatever and watch them spit out whatever was gross . I never felt much like eating after that. Besides they were Celts and i Jewish so .......... i was rather happy each fall when we came back from their or wherever in the world and just go into the house, have a lovely bath or shower and dress in pretty things and then go into my little room and lay on my little bed and cuddle my doll. Soooo very happy. Do you feel happy to come home Val after your jaunts or is it all the same one way or another?

Elbereth, you have a sensitive nature and both modes of travel have afforded you great experiences. Have you thought of taking a tour, a good one , that way in whatever country you are in you at least have a sort of family to talk to each day, especially in the evening , the end of the day over a nice meal. That for me has been lovely some of the time.

Leelee, that's the next step. This summer I have booked a tour for 12 days during my 3-week-travel in New Zealand. So I will have time to be alone and think about many things-changes I am organizing (actually I am thinking of quitting my job and go abroad for working and living, hard decision but very good experience I suppose); I will have also time to know people and even make new friends during the tour. It will be funny and new for me.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your suggestion.

Yes, Leelee. In this case I have some suggestions and I got some of them from here. I have chatted once with Fornad and he suggested me a tour I will try if I have time. I am always listening to any opinion, sometimes someone else's idea can be a great help.

By the way, Fornad: kind regards, I would like to have news from you dear.

How kind of you Val, but i am a writer by trade, so no kudos to me. Many to all of you though, i have not been on a site before that has such a singular number of well read and very articulate folk .

Val, consider taking some good snaps of where you travel on the salty sea and write a small book on it .The sea calls many and yet there are numerous people on this earth who will never have  a chance to go out into the elements on a chill black morning, crisp air into the lungs, the air of adventure quivering about you . They shall never taste the salt tang of the air as the craft plunges through tons of living water , or know what it is to feel the desperate call of sleep when the sun is beguiling and the air is intoxicating and the gentle lap of sea water caresses the steady seasoned craft. But with a small picture filled book and a simple narrative and your deep feelings about what you do and where you go, well the rest of us can sigh with contentment after putting the book down, knowing we went along with you and will never be quite the same.