Hello everyone!
It's been quite a long time since I've been on this site (eight years apparently! How time flies), so not sure there will be too many around who remember me, but I used to post here as Longbottom Leaf. I was pretty active during my time here and wrote a few articles, but ended up drifting away from the hobby after a big move for my family towards the end of high school. I have such good memories of this place, it was always such a warm and engaging community.
I recently rewatched the trilogy for the first time in a couple of years and was texting a friend while doing so, and in the course of discussing which of us was the bigger LotR nerd my old hobby came up. My friend wanted to see pictures of my old models (sadly no longer with me), so I thought I might still find some here—and sure enough a few links were still working in my old WIP thread. Seeing the old forum and my work brought back so much nostalgia, and when I saw that there was a new boxed set on the way I started thinking now might be a good time to start dipping my toes back into the hobby a bit... So, thought I'd drop in and say hi to everyone here and re-introduce myself as well! I hope everyone in the community is doing well these days!
It's crazy how much time has passed since I was here last, I wasn't even halfway through high school then and now I'm a year into my PhD! Obviously that takes up a huge chunk of my time, but I've often thought I need a good method of relaxing during my limited down time, as reading no longer really works considering it's mountains of reading I'm trying to take a break from! So, getting back into the hobby is starting to seem like an attractive idea. I've even got a friend in my cohort who was a gigantic fan of LotR, so might even be able to convince someone into being a gaming partner!
It's so nice to see that this community is still chugging along, as it was always one of my favorite places on the internet and I have such fond memories of my time here. Hopefully I'll be sticking around and making a few more!
