"In your hands, the birth of a new day... " (Limahl)

27 May 2008

Tama the Tortoiseshell

Over 2 years into the blog, It's about time I wrote a post about my choice of Tortoiseshell label.
Quite simply, one of my crazes as a young boy was cats. This coincided with my paper-round near Aberystwyth, where I used to observe and count the cats that I saw. My favourite was a tortoiseshell-and-white living on the high street of my village. It used to snooze on the window-sill of a small bungalow.
There are a few websites dedicated to the tortoiseshell "tortie" cat. Tortie love seems to be the main website for luvvy-dovey devotees. A more austere site is that of the Red, Cream and Tortoiseshell Cat Society in the UK. Explanations of the Tortoiseshell colour combination occur in this informative article, which is similar to another from the BBC which talks about the Tortie DNA. In the early days of this blog, I discovered that the calico cat (similar in colour to the Tortoiseshell, although strictly different), is one of the state symbols of Maryland.
The reason I was prompted to write this post today was this story about a "railway cat" in Japan. Some readers will know of Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical to TS Elliot's poetry - Cats. Skimbleshanks patrolled the "Northern Mail" (i.e. West Coast main line) from London to Glasgow:
Seems that one of his descendents is alive and well in Kishikawa.

20 May 2008

M4 J49 "The end of the road"

Another quick cache and dash to a new cache by Eclectic Penguin, at Pont Abraham Services.

16 May 2008

Tortoiseshell's Norfolk Traveller


This coin was posted to me by the D'arcy Mob. I found a card in "Arthur's Trig Point" cache on Gower. It instructed the finder to send a code, in return for a geocoin. Lo and behold the coin arrived in a couple of days. The coin has its roots in Norfolk, so I've sent it out o a journey cross-country to an event cache being held in August in the middle of Norfolk.
In a former life, I had the dubious pleasure of camping trips with Maalie and TCA on Norfolk. Suffice to say those "holidays" made me the man I am today. Whatever interest I did have in wildlife, was quickly vanquished by those camping trips. If only we'd been allowed into tea-rooms.
There is an interesting story behind the D'arcy coins, which may be read at this special website.

13 May 2008

Tortoiseshell's 200th find geocoin


Tortoiseshell's 200th find



This geocoin was the latest from my geocoin club subscription, a birthday present from Maalie.
The shap of the coin represents "April showers", denoting the month it was issued.
The coin commemorates my 200th ind at "Leaning seat of Llandaff". It will stay resident in one of my caches.

12 May 2008

200th find!!!



"The leaning seat of Llandaff"


200th find! Found on sunny business trip to Cardiff. River Taff and Gabalfa flats in background. The small micro brought back happy memories of my 100th find in July 2007, also a small 35mm canister at Libanus in Powys on the way to Builth.

11 May 2008

Cefn Bryn ramble


La Gatita (Travelbug)


Cefn Bryn Panorama; Cefn Bryn views of Loughor; Cefn Bryn Views of Oxwich; Arthur's Trig Point (Traditional caches)

8 May 2008

Nice coin


Zr&'s Night Caching Coin



I retrieved this fabulous coin from one of my own caches. It is one of the nicest coins I'v e come across to date.

5 May 2008

Event cache coins 3: Severn Valley Railway coin



Severn Valley Railway geocoin (this classic coin combines my childhood passion for trains with my adult fascination of geocaching)



Event cache coins 2: Staffordshire geocoin


Staffordshire Geocoin (Lovely "potteries" design, traditional county icon, puts me in mind of my geocaching scoot to Cannock Chase in early 2007).




Event cache coins 1: Kingfisher geocoin



Kingfisherteam geocoin (great icon and coin!)



4 May 2008

Matrix



It was nice to meet "Matrix" at the event cache - a prominent cacher from Swansea. He was a bit older than I thought he was. We jumped into our cars and rectified a problem with hs cache, "Twisted West Cross". I had found it in a displaced and scattered condition a few weeks earlier, but unable to find the proper location for the cache. We were able to solve the problem at the event.

3 May 2008

South Wales Event III


South Wales Event 3 (Event Cache)
I got leave to pop in to Swansea to attend only my second ever geocaching event, held at Clyne farm, Swansea. My first one had been nearly 18 months ago.
Timetable:
11.00 arrive, sign logbook, check out travelbug table; meet Eclectic Penguin, Write and Mane; Pezzini. Eclectic Penguin asks "has Tortoiseshell signed the logbook yet" - just as I am doing!
11.00-11.30 -take photos of interesting geocoins.
11.40ish - meet local geocaching "king", Sattelite Kid.
11.45 - meet Matrix. Drive down to sort out his "Twisted West Cross" cache that I had found in a displaced condition some weeks ago.
One dilemma. I did not take the time to log all the trackables that I saw at the event - I relied on a list of all trackables, posted out by Write and Mane. In a quandry which trackables to log. In the end, I logged only those trackables I remembered.