Tag: treasure hunt

Juneathon 6/30 – sticks and stones (well, just sticks really)

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The last thing I posted was about as serious as I get with blogging (that is to say, not very) but it seemed a bit weird to tack my Juneathon treasure hunt ramblings onto the end of it.

Tonight’s run was a three mile loop accompanied by Ginge (who may be listed as ‘something orange‘ if I get desperate towards the end of June). Running with him enables me to tackle routes that are a bit more off-road and I wouldn’t do on my own for fear of ending up being left murdered under a shrubbery.We set off with one item of treasure in mind, but ended up coming back with lots of other things that were pure serendipity instead.

Before we even reached the woods and fields, the pavement provided any number of sticks shaped like letters (but not I or L) (thanks to Run or Go Crazy).

Clockwise from top left:
U, V, W, D (or b, p or q at a push…) and Y

Onward we went, up through the woods where we saw (and this was where I was pleased to have a fully qualified, evidenced-based groundsman in tow) a piece of grass longer than 50cm (added to the list by Jo at Psychojog).

Formally declared “about a yard of grass” by Ginge

Up along the fields where we went, stopping to take a photo of a headless cow in my attempt to get a better close up for Cathy.

Nothing as common as headless horsemen round our way, oh no…

After the fields, we were back on the road where eagle-eyed Ginge spotted dice (I know it’s a die, but strictly speaking it was dice because I saw another one in a car further down the road but couldn’t take a photo, thank you pedants).

Please note – rain. Thank you.

Into the final leg, I suddenly remembered that I’d spotted some teabags when I nipped to the shop the other day (which, with the dice, completes the hat trick of suggestions by Artist on a Bike!).

Fancy a brew?

And what have I learned on today’s run? This year’s Juneathon has confirmed that I have turned into the sort of person who takes photos of sticks on the ground. Sigh.

Juneathon 5/30 – Oh crumbs

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The last 24 hours have been very cakey. Perhaps too cakey. An excess of blackened bananas in the fruitbowl led to the quite faffy but incredibly light and yummy Butterscotch Banana Cakes from Dirty Dan Lepard’s Short & Sweet.

Muffin top? I’ll show you muffin top…

This morning I baked a lemon drizzle cake to take to afternon tea at my mum’s. The cake was given preferential treatment being transported in the car, whereas once again I was thrown out at the side of the road and expected to run the last three miles of the journey. Not entirely coincidentially, the drop off point was mere feet away from a motorbike (suggested by Torsparkles) but the rest of the run didn’t yield any more treasure until I landed at mum’s.

Vroooooooooom!

There, I announced my arrival at the back door jogging on the spot and announcing that I couldn’t stop running until I’d seen some pretty bunting (Jen again!). One more lap of the garden and I’d clocked up two lots of bunting…

Patriotic bunting

More pretty bunting and if you look closely…

…and a bonus item of a teaspoon (added to the list by the wonderful Christine Evans AKA Artist on a Bike).

We couldn’t let this patriotic chap go unrecorded, especially as his tie originally decorated my gran’s coronation cake 60 years ago.

King of the Garden

There was then another treasure hunt around the garden and more cake.

Butterfly cake

Proper fairy cakes

And then a nap.

Juneathon 3/30 – anything could happen in the next half hour

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It’s only day three of Juneathon and already I am relying on the route where Ginge throws me out of the car in a layby on the way home from Tesco.

I had no treasure plans in mind when I set off. I’d spotted an orange squashed on the road on the way to Tesco and thought “Oooh, something orange“. This thought was then followed up with “Ooooh, roadkill that’s something orange“. Sadly the route I ran home was a different one, so the squashed orange enthusiasts amongst you will have to wait another day. I plodded along, my eyes darting left (a stick shaped like a letter) and right (roadkill) but to no avail. I did spot a pleasant pheasant but they aren’t on the list.

I’m not the pheasant plucker…

I was getting a bit desperate, but then with half a mile to go I was overtaken by a Skyride and I thought, “Ah, cyclists, I’m sure that they’re on the list” so I crossed my fingers all the way home and thanks to Knitrun4sanity there it was on the list.

Number 38: Cyclist

Juneathon 1/30 – it begins with a pothole

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On a night out a couple of weeks ago someone showed us a photo of a pothole in our village (that’s the kind of wild rock’n’roll nights out we have). At the time, we denied the hole’s existence and declared the picture to be photoshopped because the traffic cones had funny perspective. Yesterday I drove past the end of the road where the hole allegedly was and noticed that it was home to some shiny JCBs and there was a mini diversion in place. ‘Ah’ I thought ‘So it was an actual hole’. In the days between these two fascinating events, abradypus added ‘pothole’ to my treasure hunt list.

This morning, I got up at 5:15 to do a three mile out and back, taking in the amazing hole that was worth people showing off in the pub. And they’d only gone and filled it in. I’m still claiming it.

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A few people have asked about the rules of my treasure hunt. When I first had the idea, I planned to have a list of 30 items and would do one preordained item per run. Then I realised that I would most likely go insane. So I have decided to wing it take a more flexible approach to the hunt. Basically, I will try to find at least one item on each run, for each item I find whilst running I will award myself 3 points. I’m also letting myself claim things that I stumble across when not running, but for those I will award myself 1 point. Thanks to JogBlog’s natural sense of joyful evil, I will also be putting some items up for a vote and will try to find the winner on a particular run.

Technically, the list closed at midnight last night with a grand total of 67 items. 67 is a very untidy number and I would be much happier and able to relax if it was a nice round number. Seeing as it’s my rules (and I’ve just realised that Jen, Phil and Morning of Magicians gave me some wonderful suggestions that I somehow missed yesterday) I’m going to add these other suggestions and recalibrate the list. Starting with… the Olympic torch relay.

The other reason for my early start was that the Olympic torch relay was passing though town at 7.20 and having been stuck in a meeting and missing it pass right outside my work yesterday, I decided to go and have a look. It was very brief and strangely moving.

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For anyone bearing torches later in the route (Hels, I mean you) I would say, make sure that you wear good undies that don’t give you a VPL because a lot of people are going to take photos of your bum.

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(I’ve had to edit this post to try to hide my thickery that I missed shed loads of suggestions yesterday)

My Juneathon Treasure Hunt List

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Thank you all for your suggestions – I fear for the sanity of some of you.

UPDATE: I also fear for the sanity of me. Due to tiredness and being a numpty, I somehow missed a load of suggestions, so I’ve recalibrated the list to an equally untidy 79.

UPDATED UPDATE: Just spotted that we had two badgers in the list, I have culled one but we’re still untidy with 78. I’m not very good at this am I?

  1. Creature
  2. Glitter
  3. Cake
  4. Cat
  5. Sheep
  6. Motorbike
  7. Hill
  8. Viewpoint
  9. An interesting tree
  10. An exotic animal
  11. Road kill
  12. A geocache
  13. Goat
  14. A roadside egg stall
  15. A view through an arch
  16. A pebble
  17. Something orange
  18. 39 steps
  19. Trig point
  20. A red door
  21. A blue fence
  22. The ark of the covenant
  23. A tree with someone’s name carved in
  24. An orchid
  25. A piece of grass longer than 50 cms
  26. A cloud that looks like someone/ something (preferably a crocodile)
  27. Rhino
  28. Llama
  29. Pub
  30. Milestone
  31. Pothole
  32. Feather
  33. Parkrun t-shirt
  34. Union Jack
  35. Local ale
  36. Manchester tart
  37. Post van
  38. Cyclist
  39. Fire engine
  40. Unicorn
  41. Penguin
  42. Kiwi
  43. A dignified pigeon.
  44. A piece of street furniture that looks like a face.
  45. The meaning of life.
  46. An ice cream cornet without the ice cream
  47. A shell
  48. A penny
  49. Unusual bit of rubbish
  50. A Lego mini figure
  51. A dragon
  52. A badger
  53. A pirate
  54. A stick shaped like a letter (but not an I or an L)
  55. A giant rabbit (preferably wearing a bow tie and/or a top hat)
  56. Dr Who with an iguana
  57. A half eaten Greggs
  58. A Kentish Orchard
  59. Teaspoon
  60. Teabag
  61. Dice
  62. A pink car
  63. A chalk drawing on the pavement
  64. Treasure (money)
  65. A baby swan
  66. Run an errand i.e. run home with a 2kg bag of potatoes
  67. Climb a tree en route
  68. An interesting plaque
  69. Pretty bunting
  70. Beach
  71. Pier
  72. Olympic torch relay
  73. Supermarket
  74. Ducks
  75. Riverboats
  76. Castle
  77. Motorway
  78. Thunderstorm
  79. …
  80. …