I don’t have much to say about notebooks except that I have a lot of them. Each of these two notebooks contain three separate smaller notebooks. One is for brainstorming and drafting. Another is for morning pages. Some are for research notes and some are for quotations and other commonplace activities.
My question to you all is: have you ever acquired a new notebook for no other reason but to have it around just in case you get inspired and need a fresh place to compose?
I have a family of crows that live in the trees behind my home. I don’t like using the term “murder of crows“ because that just seems so harsh for such a familial group. Yes, they tear up the plants in my garden, befoul the bird bath, and terrorize the smaller birds. But they are so entertaining to watch as they swoop and glide and play and bicker with each other.
I have resisted the urge to feed them because I didn’t want them to lose their fear of humans or to become dependent on me for food. I have been assured by others who are more knowledgeable about corvids that they won’t. So at the moment I am just sticking to tossing them handfuls of raw, unsalted peanuts in the shell in the mornings as a treat. I’ve done this now for about a week and they have already gotten into the habit of waiting for me to come out of the house each morning. It’s like having a bunch of hungry teenagers hanging around the place.
I like a good treasure hunt. Not that I’ve actually been on any real ones. Until now I’ve been enjoying vicarious treasure hunts on shows like The Curse of Oak Island and Exhibition Unknown. I study the clues and make my own observations and yell at the TV screen when I know the treasure hunters are on the wrong path. I’ve only been an armchair treasure hunter until now.
I just discovered an online “game” called Geocache where participants hide little caches of goodies and mark them with GPS coordinates. The coordinates are posted to an app with written clues on how to recognize the caches. Then other participants use the app to find the general area of the caches and then physically go and find them. When a cache is located, participants sign the little paper log sheet in that specific cache, log their find in the app, and return the cache to it location for the next person to find. This needs to be discretely done so that non-participants (called “muggles”) don’t find the cache and take it– or call the police on you for acting suspiciously.
It is not as easy as it seems. I looked for four caches this weekend and only found one. The first one was supposed to be near a sidewalk under a “spiky tree”. I found the tree– which was right next to a sign that said the area was under camera surveillance. Um, no. The second one was in a park, but an old man was sitting on the bench were the clues said the cache would be. He didn’t appear that he would be moving very soon, so I gave up. The third one was in the parking lot of a post office. I investigated for about 10 minutes until I noticed a woman watching me. I realized how dodgy I must have appeared lurking around the grounds of a federal building.
I then took another look at the app to see if there were any more caches in the area. Then I recognized one: the community garden where I have volunteered for several years. Perfect! I knew no muggles would be around to bother me at 7:30 on a Sunday morning when I work there. From the clues, I knew exactly where it was hidden and walked right up to it. All this time and I never noticed this little decorated Altoid box. In the box were a variety of detritus and garden-related trinkets. I signed the log book and noted it on the app. I plan to go back and add a trinket to the box too.
I know it seems silly, but it was a bit of a buzz to find it and quite satisfying too. I figure anything that gets me out in the fresh air and moving around can’t be bad. And I can see the appeal: it’s not the “treasure”. It’s the hunt.
I just hope I don’t get caught by a muggle.
Here are pictures of the cache followed by a very brief informational YouTube video on Geocaching. And the link to the website is here.
Miss Pelican's Perch 