All That Glitters: A New Pastime

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.

ljgloyd 2021

A Saturday Morning Practice

Now that my area is almost back to normal, I decided that I had to get back out into nature. The places I used to visit for my fix of blue skies, greenery, and water are now too far away, requiring too much time out of my weekend to reach. I think the Universe felt sorry for me and showed me an urban nature center only 3 miles from my home with miles of hiking trails all around it. I had no idea this little gem was almost in my backyard.

This morning I visited: meditated under a sycamore tree, watched the monarch butterflies flit, the hummingbirds drone, and a pair of killdeer birds with three chicks peck through the meadow grass. I also pieced together this bit of video of the garden with its indigenous flora. I think I will make this a weekly practice.

Day 290: Checking In

I realized that I have not posted much in several weeks. I’ve been working—thank God—and doing a lot of reading, journaling, puttering in the kitchen and gardening. I find it very hard to drum and make art.  These take a lot more creative energy that I simply do not have right now.

However, I was struck with a little green energy yesterday and I started working on a small container garden of succulents. I already had a bunch of baby aloe vera plants which a friend gave me and I added echeveria and tiny donkey tails.   My mama aloe vera has a 3 foot blossom.

So I do what I can to stay grounded and focused during what remains of a hideous year. I am hoping that with 2021 things will start to get better. If I don’t post again this week, then everyone have a happy new year. Stay well.

Aloe Vera blossom

Ljgloyd 2020

Day 220: Work/Life Balance

Way back in March when we started our work-at-home lockdown, I fussed a lot about having to stay at home all the time, enduring the “sameness” of every day. Of course, there is still a lot of that feeling, but I have come to appreciate the benefits.

The primary benefit for me is the work/life balance.  I don’t have to rush home to meet the handiman. I don’t have to spend my weekend or evenings doing laundry or vacuuming. No stress in dealing with commuter traffic. I can make a pot of tea and drink it like a civilized person instead of gulping it from a paper cup. I can go out and weed my garden on my lunch hour. And I don’t have to binge cook on Sunday afternoons. I have time to tend a simmering caldron of soup on a Thursday afternoon. And this morning, I roasted a kabocha squash while answering work emails and preparing for zoom meetings.

Yes, I can get used to this.  Wait, I think I have gotten used to this. 

kabocha squash roasted in olive oil, rosemary, salt, pepper and drizzled with maple syrup

Day 127: Blueberry Galette

I made a galette this afternoon, which is just a fancy name for a rustic fruit tart—and “rustic” is just a fancy way of saying “let’s not worry about how it looks – just how good it tastes.”    😀

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2020/07/18/rdp-saturday-mouthwatering/

Day 115: The Zen of Airing My Laundry

Today is supposed to be a major holiday where I live. But there is no excitement for me today. It is going to be just like any other Saturday. I will work in my garden, do my laundry and get rid of some recyclables.  I may even vacuum.  It will be more of a day of quiet circumspection than a day for watching fireworks and eating barbecue.

Last week my dryer broke down.  Right now I am not inclined to get it fixed. There are several reasons for this, but basically I just don’t want to deal with it. It just seems so irrelevant in the middle of all the global chaos. Instead, I bought a clothesline and some old-fashioned wooden clothespins and this morning I hung my wet laundry out to dry in a discreet place in my yard.

I noticed right away that this is a slow process. It is not just throwing the clothes in a metal box and pressing a button. I had to take my time and hang things properly.  It was pleasant standing out in the warm summer sun. I was transported me back to my childhood before we had a dryer in the house and watched my mother tend to this task.   (I am sure my mother would not have seen this chore in the same way as I do now which is why I suspect we eventually got a dryer. And ask me my feelings about this again in January when I can’t hang my clothes out because of the freezing rain.).

But today in my yard near my sunflowers and ripening tomatoes, in the midst of a global pandemic, financial crisis, and social unrest, I am reflecting on the state of the world and finding a few minutes of serenity.  Or at least I will try.

Ljgloyd 2020

 

.https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2020/07/04/excitement/

 

Your Daily Word Prompt – #Discretion – #YDWordPrompt July 4, 2020

 

EXCITEMENT

 

Day 54: Waking Up

It is Day 54 of the quarantine and you would think that with all this time on my hands that I would be a little more productive in my creative output. That has not been the case. I was discussing this creative block with someone yesterday who challenged me to do just one tiny little creative thing each day and see where that leads.  So I decided to get back into doing morning pages in order to wake up, regain my composure as a Creative and to take advantage of the opportunity this quarantine offers.  I certainly don’t plan to post my pages here every day— just this first one to kickstart my process and maybe yours too.

———

So, it is May 6, 2020, Day 54 of the Quarantine, about 4:45 in the morning. This is my attempt to get back into doing “morning pages,” three pages of journaling done immediately upon waking. 

The traditional way of doing morning pages is to handwrite them. I’m dictating this into my cell phone because It is too much effort to find a pen and paper and to sit up to write. I want to tell myself that THAT is the reason I am not writing or doing any sort of creating— that i am just too lazy.  But that’s not it.  That’s too easy.   

Last night I was going over some resources I have about journaling and I came across this passage in Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down Them Bones:  “You must be a great warrior when you contact first thoughts and write from them.”   That is, there is a certain amount of bravery necessary to journal, and I suppose by extension to do anything creative, because you must reach deep down inside yourself and pull things up that haven’t seen the light of day.  Those things are unpleasant and they fight and scratch and kick and do everything possible not to be drug out of their dark holes.  This is scary.  

I can’t think of anything more to say right now except that I notice I’m pretty judgemental. My first thought is that I’m lazy, NowI think it’s because I’m a coward.

This is too much to deal with so early in the morning without coffee, so I think I’ll just get up and go pee now. 

Ljg 2020

 

https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2020/05/06/opportunity/

 

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2020/05/06/rdp-wednesday-composure/

 

Day 47: A Loaf of Bread and a Dose of Self-Reflection

My church is collecting stories from parishioners on how we are coping with The Quarantine.   Here is my contribution: 

…

As I write this, it is day 47 of my confinement.  I am fortunate in that I have been able to work from home, and this has served to keep me occupied and out of trouble during the day.

In the afternoons and weekends I have been taking what I have learned from the garden managers in the church garden and applying it to my own garden.  My goal even before the pandemic was to create a “pollinators’ oasis” in my backyard.  Now I finally have the chance to do this. Poppies, calendulas and nasturtiums have taken over one whole side of the yard, and I am eagerly awaiting my milkweed and borage plants to bloom. A couple of years ago I got myself a good camera and finally now have a chance to play around with it to capture images of my pollinating visitors.

I got loose in the kitchen and have been making comfort foods from my mother’s and grandmother’s recipe collections.   I have been experimenting with bread-making and I finally was able to bake something that resembled whole wheat bread rather than a whole wheat brick.

I have been binge-watching Downtown Abbey episodes and just finished the entire Harry Potter film series.  I am currently reading The Idiot’s Guide to Zen Living,   I figured out the Book of Common prayer and have been doing one of the daily offices each day.

Finally, I have been having virtual happy hours with friends through text and zoom.   One friend sent me a case of wine to make sure I do it right.

The strange thing is:  As much as I am eager to get back to “normal,”  I think I may miss this time of comradery and self-reflection when I do.

ljgloyd 2020

Day 30: Waiting for That Money Shot

Last year I bought myself a decent camera because I had this idea that I would be able to get back into photography. That did not come to pass because one thing after another came up to get in the way.

The shelter-in-place mandate by my county has been extended to the middle of May and my workplace will not allow us back until the end of May. So I have plenty of time on my hands.  Instead of just standing by and waiting for the all-clear, I thought I would put my camera to use.

Since I cannot go anywhere, I will need to be satisfied with what I can shoot around my home and in my neighborhood. This morning I figured out how do use my long range lens. I sat on my patio for a while waiting for the hummingbirds to feed on my nasturtiums as well as house finches and Black Phoebes to splash in the birdbath.  However, a murder of crows roosting in a Jacaranda tree on the property next door was creating havoc by terrorizing the mourning doves, cavorting mid-air with each other and hollering back-and-forth at full-volume.   They managed to scare off all small birds in neighborhood, so all I managed were some shots of my flowers and bees. It’s gonna take a while to get that proverbial money shot.

That’s OK.   It seems like I’m in this for the long-haul.

ljgloyd  2020

 

 

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2020/04/11/rdp-saturday-standby/

 

 

 

Day 1: Calm in the Eye of the Storm

Like hundreds of millions of people all over the world, I am trying to practice some social distancing during the pandemic.  In order to “isolate” for several weeks, I ventured out to do some shopping for essentials to have on hand.   At 6 o-my-sweet-Moses-in-the-morning in the darkness and in a pouring rainstorm, I went to one of the local warehouse stores hoping to avoid a crowd and possible exposure to the virus.  That idea didn’t work too well.  When I arrived there were already about 50 or 60 people waiting to get into the store along with me. I knew the crowds would only get worse so I took the plunge and got in line.

Seriously, I wasn’t there to hoard. I simply wanted to get some pantry staples.   For example, I thought I would get a few rolls of paper towels.  However, all the store had were huge packs of 24 rolls. I don’t need that many rolls of paper towels and to have purchased them would have been hoarding. So I left them for somebody else.  I’ll use old fashioned fabric towels and wash them.  It’s better for the environment anyway.

A lot of shelves were empty, but in spite of what I have seen on the news — people fighting over toilet paper and other insane behaviors– everyone I engaged was polite and in some cases even jovial in the attempt to take the edge off the tension.   I quickly worked through my list:  a few canned items, hand sanitizer, cartons of shelf-safe nut milk, oatmeal, and chocolate.  (I can’t face a global crisis without chocolate).  Then I checked out and high-tailed it home.

I had originally planned to fill my day with garden work, but since the rain has made that impossible, I had to find something else to occupy the day.  I’ve made an inventory of my pantry (I’m good on food and toiletries for several weeks), I fooled around on social media, and now I am writing.  This evening I plan to read.   I cannot– CANNOT– watch one more minute of the news.   It is not that the news about the pandemic frightens me.  More to the point, it unsettles me.  I am anxious.  Not so much about my getting sick, but about things like what this is doing to the stock market, and the global economy,  how does this affect my doing my job next week, and how do I keep myself sane when I am spending so much time alone.  By the way, Alexa is not very good at holding sustained conversations.

Yesterday, a friend of mine had a digital copy sent to me of a well-known book on Zen meditation.  So tomorrow, Sunday, since my diocese has cancelled worship services, I may sit and try to meditate instead.   I have the next few weeks to worry about the state of things.   Tomorrow, though, I will take a few minutes and try to find some calm in this storm.

Stay well everyone.

ljg (c) 2020

 

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2020/03/14/rdp-saturday-calm/

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2020/03/13/rdp-friday-isolate/