The latest nerd-centric activity that has swept through the Patch involves a cell phone, GPS and some local travel and walking in sometimes remote locations to hunt down an illusive Geocache.
A typical cache is a small waterproof container with a logbook and some toys or trinkets, they can also contain items for trading and some trackable artifacts. This one we found locally is a ‘nano’ cache and only contains a rolled up log sheet.
After downloading the Geocaching App you pick what treasure you want to hunt down using GPS to get you in the approximate location.
Our treasure hunt took us into a local graveyard.
No I don’t think it will be down there.
Good exercise this Geocaching.
We honed into the location and started to look around.
And we continued to look around,
and around.
This part of the process can make you look like you should be in a state hospital wandering aimlessly around and around head down. I personally caught my self mumbling at one point around the twenty minute mark.
It took us half an hour to locate it and there was no trinkets or treasure at this particular find just a rolled up log book to sign, but someone was a very happy cacher.
Back in the Patch:
The light quality has started to have a wintery feel this past week.
Bamboo Muhly and tropical looking loquat catching some rays.
My Mexican firebushes
Hamelia patens
are living up to their name
You could warm your hands up on these in colder climates,
and behind these, the slender unfurling panicles of Lindheimers muhly
Muhlenbergia lindheimeri
a great native, and a good softer alternative to the flesh slicing pampas.
This soggy toadstool says it all.
With our recent rains they have been popping up everywhere.
When the sun came out so did the anoles and lizards.
I got very close to this usually skittish and very fast Texas spiny lizard,
Sceloporus olivaceus
those long toes are adept at climbing trees.
This was a large one, about a foot in length. Its body temperature must have been low which allowed me time to get close with my camera. The spiny body coloration blends perfectly with the bark and lichen on our large trees.
I will leave you with this sobering image…
Yes, my strobilus finally detached itself this week.
It had been lolling around looking sad for weeks now with just a few fibers keeping it attached to the sago palm. I decided to perform the delicate surgical procedure myself and trudged off to my shed for my hook saw and gloves.
I am thinking of mounting it to a wooden frame and hanging it up in our hallway.
Stay Tuned for:
“ Extraction”
All material © 2013 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.
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Watch out for that geochacheting it can take you to some terrible places. We did it a few years ago with our grandson and we had to climb through a narrow slot in a brick wall (water drain) in order to get between this wall and the wall bordering the Dallas tollway! Glad there wasn’t a sudden flash flood. We did find it. Then off to a cleared apartment site where the grids were 5 feet above the ground. One was inside the grid. I’d much rather be gardening. In Arizona we found a very clever one in the 1″ decomposed granite. Someone had stuck granite on the lid of the box and buried it jsut below the surface so the granite was level. There’s an idea Mr ESP.
I know exactly what you mean…we ended up in some pretty disturbing places, woods inhabited by homeless people etc, definitely not for nighttime Geocaching!
We have a Geocache hidden around the front of the Patch which contained a trackable steam punk robot called Hamish, (his objective is to get all the way to Lockerbie, Scotland). Someone recently took him and he is now heading to a cache next to Pittsburgh International Airport – he is on his way.
Fly Hamish fly! (Gump accent)
The patch looks good after all the rains. I have more blooms than at any time this year.
Look at my blog and see the thalia picts. It’s kind of a patch kind of plant. If you want a start let me know and I’ll pot you some up.
Thanks Bob, yes rain sure does help to fill things out, great color this fall.
The thalia is very cool, and yes please count me in for a division…oh dear, I sense another dedicated stock tank may be in order for this one, luckily for me I have one sitting empty at the back of the Patch.
That is an amazing display. Man, I just gotta get me a pond! (Do you suppose it would grow in a barrel kept filled with water?)
Get it right Deb :-)
Oooops. That earlier comment was meant for Bob about his thalia. What I wanted to say to you ESP is that as much as I admire your close up shots I really truly appreciate the wider shots that give me more the feel of the Patch and its overall environment and design. And, that geo-caching looks like a great way to get kids out and walking their surroundings. What a fun idea.
You had me wondering for a while TD.
Glad you liked the wide shot, the light quality at this time of the year is the best for these sort of captures.
Geocaching is a lot of fun, but be prepared, some of the locations are not for the faint of heart. There are even underwater caches.