Climbing trees and other adventures

Millie having a great time whilst out for a walk last weekend.

Have been having a great time out caching with some great adventures. Last weekend was really good. On Saturday I went round a series of 6 caches in a mile long circle. One of the caches was about 25 high up in a tree. I left my bag and walking stick on the ground and walked along the large trunk that had fallen at an angle. It was a bit nerve racking but I managed it slowly and carefully. Millie was going crazy howling and crying. I reached up and signed the log and put it back. Then started coming down. Millie thought she would join me at that point and lend a helping paw which made things tricky. I was so worried that she would fall off. Anyway we both made it down safe and sound.

I continued along the footpath that was in a dark wooded area that was absolutely covered in bluebells. The smell of the bluebells was really strong in the enclosed area. The next cache was interesting too. It was a box inside a large log that had been cut out. Very clever.

Then on Sunday I joined my caching pal Jill to drive round a local town to pick up some caches. We found everyone of them. Two of them were brilliant as they were not the usual plastic clip and lock pot or 35mm film container. One looked just like an apple but was hand made out of some unknown substance with the pull out core as the log. It was in a very dark part of the woods so difficult to get a photo. Howeve I did manage to get a photo of the next one which was a clay, I think, mushroom. Very enjoyable.

I will finish off with a fantastic view across the English countryside. We had found a cache under a bench and were sitting on the bench signing the log. The sun was shining and the world was a good place to be in that day.

Caching

Am enjoying caching everyday. It is quite challenging to do at least one every day. I have done at least one cache every day for the past two weeks, so going well so far but not sure I will make 100 consecutive days. as it is hard going.

Had a great day today. I dropped Alice off at college and had two hours to do a bit of caching before picking her and Sev up to take to an interview they both had at the same place. I have never been into the woods that I went into today and it is always nice to explore somewhere new. It was pretty hilly in these woods.

I also found a pink cache which was unusual. Sev was surprised that it did not stand out from all the green and brownness of the woods but I explained that it was well hidden away in a hollow log.

I have twelve caches that I have laid for others to find and there was a couple who had been looking for my caches over the weekend. They said they couldn't find one of the caches that had already been "muggled" just a month ago. So I was pretty annoyed to think it had gone again, and with a trackable in it again. So as I was off work today I popped along to see what was what. Luckily the cache was there and the trackable were still there. Thank goodness. The same couple said that the log in another cache was full so I went to replace that too. When I got home and checked the log it was actually not full at all. Very strange as the couple certainly weren't new to caching with approx 750 cache finds. I was surprised at their comments, but at least all is well.

Over the weekend I replaced a log that had been left to get wet. It was not at all possible to sign as the paper was just one papier mache mess. I took the log home and pulled it carefully apart and hung the pieces of paper from the log up to dry. It has dried beautifully. Not sure what to do with it now because the cache owners no longer go caching. The log is five years old so I wont get rid of it.

I've got one cache in mind for tomorrow, and then I want to go to Surrey to do the MUGS series and nab about 25 caches in one hit!

A walk after work

Had a busy day at work today, Katy had the day off so it was pretty hectic for me. Still loving it though. I know it has only been a month but I am so much happier where I am right now. There is no way I am going back. YAY. Words can't express how happy that makes me!!! :D

Last night I saw a new cache right near work. I did debate with myself about nabbing a FTF first thing this morning before work, but it would have been a one mile walk and I probably would have ended up hot and sweaty before I even started. So I waited excitedly until work had finally finished at 5pm. Drove to the Country park car park and set off. The first one was literally just 500 yards away. I was lucky in that I was just putting the cache back when I dog walking muggle came into sight! Phew. That was close.

It's a beautiful evening so I know I will have a nice walk, especially as I have managed to find at least one cache today! YAY. Third day in a row. Heee hee. So off I go to the new cache. Nice easy walk along a clear pathwhich was slightly muddy in places. The cache was hidden in a log. It took me a few minutes to find it but was pleased to find it eventually.

I walked back to the car. There is one more nearby, a third of a mile away, but i decided to leave this to another day. After all I need to save some to continue with my 1 a day for 100 days challenge. LOL.

Caching

I have managed to find a cache yesterday and two today. I read someone's caching blog where they have set themselves the challenge of finding one cache every day for 100 consecutive days. Well I have managed two days in a row, I wonder how many more I can do in a row!! Doubt I could make 100 but it is worth a go. Trouble is I am running out of local ones to do before or after work during the week, so will have to plan carefully.

Just seen a new one come on line tonight which is right near where I work. Now do I get just that one or do I get another one nearby? Hmm, that might actually depend on how much time I will have, particularly if I plan to go before work which I am!

Tonight I went off for three caches and to give Millie a walk too. It gets boring going round our local woods every night, so it is nice to have a change of scenery as often as possible. The first one I went after was uphill - Plumberow Mount with a little mound at the top. There were some lovely views across the countryside. Unfortunately there were a couple of lager louts loitering right by where I thought the cache might be so I could not get to have a look even, just turned around and went back downhill. Millie had a great time running up and down with a log to throw around and chew. We popped into the car and drove a short way to nab two easy ones. The first had a DNF from November 2009 and nothing logged since so I was not too hopeful about finding it. But lo and behold it was an easy find. Funny how that goes sometimes it is dead easy, sometimes what everyone else has logged as an easy find can take me ages to locate. Anyway signed the log and started trekking up another hill to the next one. There was a lovely carpet of spring flowers on the ground, not bluebells, these were white. Not sure what they are called. There were limited views from the top of this hill. The cache was in a great hiding place. It was in the top of a telegraph pole that was hollow at the top but the cache owner had placed a little lid on top with the cache inside. Very neat.

month of SPAD

During the month of February I took part in a challenge to take a self portrait a month and here is a layout showing a few of those photos. It was quite a challenge as usually I am pointing the camera the other way! Also finding new and inventive ways to take a photo of the thing, namely me, every day was quite difficult too. The challenge was on Digital Scrapbooking Place website and there were quite a few others doing the challenge too, from all over the world. I really enjoyed finding out about these people, all of whom I have never met. It was great to see their day to day goings on throughout the month. I certainly will miss the comments and chatting with each other but I dont think I will miss thinking of different ways to take a photo of myself.

Joggers foil cacher

Oh dear you couldn't make it up. Tonight was like a scene out of a comedy film. I had just dropped Alice and her boyfriend at St Johns Ambulance at 8pm and though I would nab a simple cache or two on the way back home. It should be quiet on a cold winter evening I thought. I drove along the seafront and saw some joggers, and thought it must be a jogging club. But then as I drove along there were more and more. Until I reached my destination at the end of a parking spot on the seafront where a tiny nano sized cache was hidden somewhere. Only to find about 50 or 60 joggers warming up and generally loitering around right in the spot I wanted to search.

I had to laugh, will try again later when I pick Alice up when hopefully they will have dispersed.



So on to the next one. It was just outside a church and was another nano cache (about the size of those little circular watch batteries). Only to find that the cache location was in a park with locked gates. It was dark and I was hesitant to peer through the gates after having just finished watching a programme about vampires. Talk about scare myself silly. So I decided to go home and get warm again. Will just have to try another time.



I have had a bit of a weekend of things going wrong whilst caching so this evening just polished it off. LOL



I thought I would lay my own little caches in a nearby country park. So off I go on a nice dry winter's day. I had prepared three tubs and 2 x 35mm canisters to place in trees and little nooks and crannies. I had left a trackable item in one of them and it was not until I got home that I realised that I had not noted which pot/location had the trackable. You are supposed to log these on the website, so I messed up there and that has caused a little bit of confusion as just two hours after the cache site went live online, someone had picked up the trackable already! Talk about eager. Then a few hours later I realised I had put the co-ordinates for a nearby car park instead of the actual cache site. DOH. I wont be laying a series again for a while. I think I will leave it to those more experienced. Oh you have to laugh.

Ups and downs and muddy paths

It was a beautiful sunny morning when I woke up, clear blue skies. No work today, so that means only one thing. A nice walk in the countryside. I didn't want to take Millie with me because I knew I was going to be walking around a village first so I took her and Barney for a quick run over the park nearby. There is a cache there, a tiny one about the size of a fingernail, which I have been looking for on and off for six months. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=ede3c12f-57c8-44fa-81a4-8835f78ccfd8 I had yet another look today. Nope couldn't find it. I'm thinking it must be lost so take the dogs back home and head off to the village.

At the village there was a multi-cache. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=985c1ec1-634a-4d03-8f54-a0c752daed2c This means that you have to go to different locations to get the clues and work out what the co-ordinates for the actual cache are. I spent a nice hour or so wandering around, finding out interesting little facts about this quaint and very old village which is absolutely steeped in history. Including a market square where people used to be hung. One such chap was hung just for being a Protestant in 1555. Unfortunately the cache site was in a field, so I had to traipse through the mud, which I had hoped to avoid today. The cache was in a tree which was right on the edge of a ditch. With all the rain and snow we have had recently the ditch was waterlogged so I had to gingerly cross the ditch to get to the tree. Picked up the cache, a small tupperware pot full of little odds and ends and opened it up to write on the log. Just as I had all the contents out, along comes a man walking his dog. Caught in the act. God knows what he thought I was doing. You've got to laugh. But I do always seem to get caught red handed these days. I must look all around before actually getting the cache. Anyway go that so off I went to do another one. This was a straight forward cache with co-ords and a clue to where to search. So I parked the car up and walked along to the cache site which was near a fishing lake. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=afdc0319-070a-4676-b339-f3ce79ca9e49 Fortunately there wasn't anyone around but unfortunately I could not find it at all. The clue was to look under a log. There were loads of logs and I searched under them all twice. No luck. Oh well that will be a DNF (did not find) to log on the website when I get home.
Off to the next one. My knee was getting very swollen and painful by now so I though I would do a straight forward mulit-cache up the road in an another village.http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=f901231b-eab1-43ea-b3df-e15fabb5d086 The clues were obtained from a war memorial and I had the co-ordinates to the cache quickly. This one was in the woods, down a muddy path. So much for avoiding the mud today! It was quite slippery and on a slope so that was fun going down then back up again. I found the cache site easily though it was in a part of the woods that was not visited often so there were no paths in some areas, just loads of brambles to trip me up. Well that was me for the day so I went home for a nice cup of tea and cheese on toast for lunch.

I got home and started to log my finds on the geocaching website when I found out that the one I had tried to find this morning, in the park, had been found today. I was so incensed that I had not been able to find it. I messaged the person who had found it, someone I met last week actually, and confirmed it was where I thought it was. So off I went again to look for it, this time I took Millie with me. This was at 4pm today. There were loads of people walking their dogs so it was difficult to hunt for the cache. I spent ages walking up and down and talking to dog owners whilst Millie had a wonderful time running around with other dogs. Eventually there was a lull and I finally had it in my hands after much searching. What a relief. It has been bugging me for so long, not having this one ticked off my list, especially as it the nearest one to where I live.

So then I finally went home for dinner. What a day of ups and downs.