Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[Laxie]

It's gonna piss rain on Saturday.  This is seriously hindering our geocaching plans and I'm not impressed.  We're heading out shopping for wet weather gear tomorrow.  Shopping and then trudging around in the pissing rain.  Yay!

Ooh!

So much of interest (Well to me anyway) there.

More info please, speshly re geocaching. Have you been before, or is this a first?

Also, Why the sudden need for wet weather gear? Are we talking a polly mack & a brolly for popping to the offy or some serious stuff from say, Berghaus for yomping around Leicestershire?

Geocache is basically hide and seek for geeks.  People hide wee containers with a log book and sometimes trinkets for trading.  The coordinates are posted on the geocache site with a clue or two for the hunters.  They're also tagged on a map so you don't HAVE to have a GPS device.  I've an app on my HTC for it which helped A LOT last week-end.  Except it'll eat the battery on yer phone, so you have to work fast.

Last week-end was our first successful run at it.  I'd heard so much about geocaching and saw posts from friends on facebook as they found their latest cache, but never really bothered with it.  A few weeks ago Jack was concerned with my constant housebound status so I suggested we give it a go.  Figured it would get me out of the house and get him off my case.  Result on both fronts.

A lot of the caches are hidden in countryside locations around here.  Alongside country walking paths, up hills and all sorts.  It'll get mucky in the rain and wet jeans are no fun, so we're getting walking trousers.  That was painful just now.  I call them pants but I know ye foreigners think of pants as something different.  Anyway, with the correct outdoor gear, we're sorted and even the rain won't hold us back.

 

[RED-DOG]

It's gonna piss rain on Saturday.  This is seriously hindering our geocaching plans and I'm not impressed.  We're heading out shopping for wet weather gear tomorrow.  Shopping and then trudging around in the pissing rain.  Yay!

Ooh!

So much of interest (Well to me anyway) there.

More info please, speshly re geocaching. Have you been before, or is this a first?

Also, Why the sudden need for wet weather gear? Are we talking a polly mack & a brolly for popping to the offy or some serious stuff from say, Berghaus for yomping around Leicestershire?

Geocache is basically hide and seek for geeks.  People hide wee containers with a log book and sometimes trinkets for trading.  The coordinates are posted on the geocache site with a clue or two for the hunters.  They're also tagged on a map so you don't HAVE to have a GPS device.  I've an app on my HTC for it which helped A LOT last week-end.  Except it'll eat the battery on yer phone, so you have to work fast.

Last week-end was our first successful run at it.  I'd heard so much about geocaching and saw posts from friends on facebook as they found their latest cache, but never really bothered with it.  A few weeks ago Jack was concerned with my constant housebound status so I suggested we give it a go.  Figured it would get me out of the house and get him off my case.  Result on both fronts.

A lot of the caches are hidden in countryside locations around here.  Alongside country walking paths, up hills and all sorts.  It'll get mucky in the rain and wet jeans are no fun, so we're getting walking trousers.  That was painful just now.  I call them pants but I know ye foreigners think of pants as something different.  Anyway, with the correct outdoor gear, we're sorted and even the rain won't hold us back.

 

Just what I need, another hobby.

Details of the app and how to enter coordinates please.

Also- Metal detecting is great fun.

[Laxie]

It's gonna piss rain on Saturday.  This is seriously hindering our geocaching plans and I'm not impressed.  We're heading out shopping for wet weather gear tomorrow.  Shopping and then trudging around in the pissing rain.  Yay!

Ooh!

So much of interest (Well to me anyway) there.

More info please, speshly re geocaching. Have you been before, or is this a first?

Also, Why the sudden need for wet weather gear? Are we talking a polly mack & a brolly for popping to the offy or some serious stuff from say, Berghaus for yomping around Leicestershire?

Geocache is basically hide and seek for geeks.  People hide wee containers with a log book and sometimes trinkets for trading.  The coordinates are posted on the geocache site with a clue or two for the hunters.  They're also tagged on a map so you don't HAVE to have a GPS device.  I've an app on my HTC for it which helped A LOT last week-end.  Except it'll eat the battery on yer phone, so you have to work fast.

Last week-end was our first successful run at it.  I'd heard so much about geocaching and saw posts from friends on facebook as they found their latest cache, but never really bothered with it.  A few weeks ago Jack was concerned with my constant housebound status so I suggested we give it a go.  Figured it would get me out of the house and get him off my case.  Result on both fronts.

A lot of the caches are hidden in countryside locations around here.  Alongside country walking paths, up hills and all sorts.  It'll get mucky in the rain and wet jeans are no fun, so we're getting walking trousers.  That was painful just now.  I call them pants but I know ye foreigners think of pants as something different.  Anyway, with the correct outdoor gear, we're sorted and even the rain won't hold us back.

 

Just what I need, another hobby.

Details of the app and how to enter coordinates please.

Also- Metal detecting is great fun.

The app for android phones (HTC, etc.) is called c:geo  It's really cool because you don't even enter coordinates.  The app is linked to the official geocache site so it'll have all the details and you just follow the gps map on your phone.  The great thing about that app?  You can be out and about doing whatever when the mood hits you.  Run the app and it'll show you where all the caches in that area are located and lead you right to them.

If you want to go proper techno geek about it, you can get a hand held GPS unit.  That's where coordinates come into play.  You'll have to enter them into the unit before you head out.  Jack has one and it's supposedly a pretty good one too, but I reckon the app on the phone helped us more than the GPS unit last week-end.  That said, the battery on a GPS unit won't run out near as fast.

I used to LOVE metal detecting!  We lived in the middle of nowhere for a bit during my younger years, so I used to comb the fields for hours with our metal detector to pass the day away.  Not done that in years. 

[Laxie]

A little side note.  While I say the app will lead you right to it, I mean it'll lead you to within a foot or two.  You'll still need to use a bit of detective work to actually uncover the cache.  Each cache comes with a clue or two which help and after a bit you get used to how to search.  I found myself automatically moving stones and sticks in obvious places last week that I wouldn't have bothered with before taking this up.

[RED-DOG]

I use my phone instead of a sat-nav for finding my way around now. I find thay id I leave the navigation running, but switch the screen off, the battery lasts much longer.

[RED-DOG]

We've had a visit from a vandal. He managed to break two of my feeders in less than the time it took to set Kizzy on him.

Grey squirrels seem to be getting redder these days, and I don't think it's because they are blushing.

[tikay]

Don't be cruel, Tom. Squirrels are like moles, they are God's creatures.

Be nice to them.

PS - I used to make a nice little earner from "squirrel control". My Client really thought they could be controlled. Bless. No happy ending though, they destroyed loads of his trees, which were part of a Capability Brown affair. They knaw a "circle" in the tree bark on branches, & the branch then dies - just like that. Clever, or what?

[RED-DOG]

Don't be cruel, Tom. Squirrels are like moles, they are God's creatures.

Be nice to them.

PS - I used to make a nice little earner from "squirrel control". My Client really thought they could be controlled. Bless. No happy ending though, they destroyed loads of his trees, which were part of a Capability Brown affair. They knaw a "circle" in the tree bark on branches, & the branch then dies - just like that. Clever, or what?

I'm not being cruel, but I really don't want squirrels getting under the roof of my mobile, they can do a tremendous amount of damage.  

Kizzy is the perfect deterrent. She can't catch em, and even if she did, my money would be on the squirrel.

[Nakor]

My Old chap has spent the last 3 days trying to get a photo of a Black Squirrel, he says is currently residing in an Oak tree in his garden.
Sadly his eyes are not the best and he keep missing his target - needless to say I greeted this news as though it proved the onset of dementia in the old boy, but a bit of Google magic proves that they are becoming quite widespread in East Anglia and Cambridgeshire, and hopefully proves he is still in command of all his faculties.

Maybe I need to take my new found camera knowledge from Blonde and go and help the old boy out.

[RED-DOG]

My Old chap has spent the last 3 days trying to get a photo of a Black Squirrel, he says is currently residing in an Oak tree in his garden.
Sadly his eyes are not the best and he keep missing his target - needless to say I greeted this news as though it proved the onset of dementia in the old boy, but a bit of Google magic proves that they are becoming quite widespread in East Anglia and Cambridgeshire, and hopefully proves he is still in command of all his faculties.

Maybe I need to take my new found camera knowledge from Blonde and go and help the old boy out.

Well I've never seen one, but I sure would like to.

If you or your old man manage to photograph him, please post it on here..


wiki says..


As a melanistic of the Eastern Gray Squirrel, individual black squirrels can exist wherever grey squirrels live. Grey mating pairs may produce black offspring, and in areas with high concentrations of black squirrels, mixed litters are common.[1] The black subgroup seems to have been dominant throughout North America prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century, since their dark colour helped them hide in virgin forests which tended to be very dense and shaded. As time passed, hunting and deforestation led to biological advantages for grey coloured individuals.[2] Today, the black subgroup is particularly abundant in the northern part of the Eastern Grey Squirrel's range.[3][4] This is likely due to the significantly increased cold tolerance of black individuals which lose less heat than greys.[5] Black individuals also enjoy concealment advantages in denser northern forests.[1]



Isn't he fabulous?

[tikay]

My Old chap has spent the last 3 days trying to get a photo of a Black Squirrel, he says is currently residing in an Oak tree in his garden.
Sadly his eyes are not the best and he keep missing his target - needless to say I greeted this news as though it proved the onset of dementia in the old boy, but a bit of Google magic proves that they are becoming quite widespread in East Anglia and Cambridgeshire, and hopefully proves he is still in command of all his faculties.

Maybe I need to take my new found camera knowledge from Blonde and go and help the old boy out.

Well I've never seen one, but I sure would like to.

If you or your old man manage to photograph him, please post it on here..


wiki says..


As a melanistic of the Eastern Gray Squirrel, individual black squirrels can exist wherever grey squirrels live. Grey mating pairs may produce black offspring, and in areas with high concentrations of black squirrels, mixed litters are common.[1] The black subgroup seems to have been dominant throughout North America prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century, since their dark colour helped them hide in virgin forests which tended to be very dense and shaded. As time passed, hunting and deforestation led to biological advantages for grey coloured individuals.[2] Today, the black subgroup is particularly abundant in the northern part of the Eastern Grey Squirrel's range.[3][4] This is likely due to the significantly increased cold tolerance of black individuals which lose less heat than greys.[5] Black individuals also enjoy concealment advantages in denser northern forests.[1]



Isn't he fabulous?

I thought this was quite interesting, too, (Black Squirrel corry here),

Black squirrels can also be found in Britain where grey squirrels were first introduced from North America at the end of the 19th century. The origin of the UK's black individuals has been a topic of dispute, with initial research indicating that melanistic individuals are descendants of black zoo escapees. Regardless of their origins, the melanistic population in the UK continues to grow, and around the towns of Letchworth, Stevenage and Hitchin, as well as nearby villages such as Shillington and Meppershall in England, black squirrels are now as abundant as grey individuals. Black squirrels have been present and studied in Cambridgeshire since the 1990s; in the village of Girton three quarters of the squirrel population is black.[

[Rod Paradise]

We've had a visit from a vandal. He managed to break two of my feeders in less than the time it took to set Kizzy on him.

Grey squirrels seem to be getting redder these days, and I don't think it's because they are blushing.

Funny - I was read a letter in a shooting magazine yesterday that said the greys were getting redder. Shooting - there's an idea....

Greys have moved into this area in the last few years, and unfortunately I haven't seen a red since.

[RED-DOG]

My Old chap has spent the last 3 days trying to get a photo of a Black Squirrel, he says is currently residing in an Oak tree in his garden.
Sadly his eyes are not the best and he keep missing his target - needless to say I greeted this news as though it proved the onset of dementia in the old boy, but a bit of Google magic proves that they are becoming quite widespread in East Anglia and Cambridgeshire, and hopefully proves he is still in command of all his faculties.

Maybe I need to take my new found camera knowledge from Blonde and go and help the old boy out.

Well I've never seen one, but I sure would like to.

If you or your old man manage to photograph him, please post it on here..


wiki says..


As a melanistic of the Eastern Gray Squirrel, individual black squirrels can exist wherever grey squirrels live. Grey mating pairs may produce black offspring, and in areas with high concentrations of black squirrels, mixed litters are common.[1] The black subgroup seems to have been dominant throughout North America prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century, since their dark colour helped them hide in virgin forests which tended to be very dense and shaded. As time passed, hunting and deforestation led to biological advantages for grey coloured individuals.[2] Today, the black subgroup is particularly abundant in the northern part of the Eastern Grey Squirrel's range.[3][4] This is likely due to the significantly increased cold tolerance of black individuals which lose less heat than greys.[5] Black individuals also enjoy concealment advantages in denser northern forests.[1]



Isn't he fabulous?

I thought this was quite interesting, too, (Black Squirrel corry here),

Black squirrels can also be found in Britain where grey squirrels were first introduced from North America at the end of the 19th century. The origin of the UK's black individuals has been a topic of dispute, with initial research indicating that melanistic individuals are descendants of black zoo escapees. Regardless of their origins, the melanistic population in the UK continues to grow, and around the towns of Letchworth, Stevenage and Hitchin, as well as nearby villages such as Shillington and Meppershall in England, black squirrels are now as abundant as grey individuals. Black squirrels have been present and studied in Cambridgeshire since the 1990s; in the village of Girton three quarters of the squirrel population is black.[

I was intrigued by this bit..

Today, the black subgroup is particularly abundant in the northern part of the Eastern Grey Squirrel's range.[3][4] This is likely due to the significantly increased cold tolerance of black individuals which lose less heat than greys.

[RED-DOG]

We've had a visit from a vandal. He managed to break two of my feeders in less than the time it took to set Kizzy on him.

Grey squirrels seem to be getting redder these days, and I don't think it's because they are blushing.

Funny - I was read a letter in a shooting magazine yesterday that said the greys were getting redder. Shooting - there's an idea....

Greys have moved into this area in the last few years, and unfortunately I haven't seen a red since.

I used to be in to shooting, and still have nothing against it provided it's done responsibly.

However, shooting with a camera is just as challenging, but kinder and easier to share.

[Rod Paradise]

We've had a visit from a vandal. He managed to break two of my feeders in less than the time it took to set Kizzy on him.

Grey squirrels seem to be getting redder these days, and I don't think it's because they are blushing.

Funny - I was read a letter in a shooting magazine yesterday that said the greys were getting redder. Shooting - there's an idea....

Greys have moved into this area in the last few years, and unfortunately I haven't seen a red since.

I used to be in to shooting, and still have nothing against it provided it's done responsibly.

However, shooting with a camera is just as challenging, but kinder and easier to share.

Aye, but pictures don't taste as good

To be fair I get the point & there's no real benefit in shooting Greys down South unless they're causing damage, or encroaching on the few Red populations left. Here the idea is to keep them to the towns & south of the border if possible to try and give the reds a chance.