Turf Zone – DochartFalls
Without a Planet Gary Advent Callender to stress me out this year, I’m now happily free to tackle the annual offering from Turf Skåne. Their Turf Advent Calander has 25 turf assignments, one for each day starting on the 1st December and ending on the 25th December. More details on the rules and participant guidelines here. On this page, I’m going to post each of the daily assignments and a short blog about my own adventures. Hope the Google translation makes sense.
Assignment No 11 – 11th December 2025 – Christmas Plague
WHAM!’s “Last Christmas” is a painful 4:27. Grab as many zones as you can that have the letters “W”, “H”, “A” or “”M” in their names while the song is playing.
Talk about coincidence. ChoccyMuffin asked her beside Alexa device to play some Christmas songs and guess which one she played first. Aye, Last Christmas by WHAM. There is no escape! Anyway, I identified two zones that fit the bill for this assignment, both locally and also within the 40 Bonnyrigg zones I’m taking for the El Staminatore medal. They are zones Wishart and ArgentumDrive. They are only minutes apart which means I don’t have to listen to the entire song.
Assignment No 10 – 10th December 2025 – Christmas Cake
Christmas baking is mandatory. Take a zone where you see a place where bread is baked, or, take a zone that looks like a loaf of bread or a cake.
A few possibilities for this one. One is zone Restoration down in Dalkeith Country Park though you might have to blag access to the zone as they sell Christmas trees from that area. However, I don’t know for sure if they actually do bake their own bread or order in from suppliers. Another zone is Dalhousie, at Dalhousie Castle Hotel. Our very own CardiffSoulCru used to work there and they did bake bread then but if they do so now, I’m not certain. His scones are sorely missed. So, I’ve gone for the third option zone A7View, in full view of Greggs Eskbank Drive Thru. Okay, their bread is probably mixed and pre-baked in regional bakeries but they do at least finish off the baking on site. So, that will do for me.
Assignment No 9 – 9th December 2025 – Anna’s Day
Tradition: The day has historically been linked to tasting the year’s Christmas beer. It’s also Gingerbread Day. Get sober and eat some gingerbread in a zone whose name begins with the letter “P”.
Well, sort of completed this one. Easy enough to take a zone starting with the letter “P”, that would be Pittendreich, only a minutes walk from the house. However, gingerbeard is not something we generally buy, so I had make do with something else with ginger in the ingredients. As luck would have it we had some ginger Biscotti biscuits in the biscuit time. Yum yum.
Assignment No 8 – 8th December 2025 – Self-discipline. Don’t freeze!
Do a warded session with exactly the same number of zone takings as today’s date (8). If you want to take more zones – keep in mind that you need an hour before and an hour after that you don’t take any zones.
Quick session in the evening locally. Eight zones taken, no more, no less. Lost count how many times I counted them to make sure there was only eight.
Assignment No 7 – 7th December 2025 – Second Advent
When the second candle burns, Lucia will soon be here. She offers us coffee and promises that Christmas will bring. Find a zone where you can buy a cup of coffee and, if possible, invite a fellow human being to coffee. For extra Christmas spirit: take a picture of you and the person you brought coffee to and share it wherever you want.
Nice easy one this. Or is it? To find a zone where you can actually purchase a coffee from within the zone is about as rare as a UFO stopping at Tesco Express for four Meal Deals and to ask where ET is showing at the cinema. Even finding a zone near, or within sight of a place you can buy a cup of coffee, isn’t all that common. Though I suppose you could pick a zone, find the nearest house, knock on the door and ask if they will sell you a cup of coffee. But, that’s a bit OTT, is it not? Anyway, my target will be zone A7View, just a few meters from Starbucks in Eskbank. However, technically, they only do coffee in mugs or tumblers, not cups of coffee. I know, I’ll take my own cup along and ask them to use that!
It is now after the reset and the start of a new round. Zone A7View taken and assignment complete. Didn’t go in for a coffee as I don’t like Starbucks coffee, far too strong. And they don’t do scones! How could they not do scones? Shocking!
Assignment No 6 – 6th December 2025 – Christmas Sausage
The word occurs as part of a sausage name and is also the shorter title that the Englishman Charles previously had. Take a zone that has to do with the word or is located at a place that is related to the word or is related to the word that is Charles’s new title.
I’ll needed some help and our learned super turfer ESOCWalter provided exactly what was required. So, in light of the clarification below, I hopped onto the No 31 bus into Edinburgh. Bad idea. Very bad idea. Remind me never to visit Edinburgh on a Saturday before Christmas. It was totally crazy mental. Hell’s grannies hurtling along the pavement on their Harley Davison mobility scooters parting shoppers like Moses and the Red Sea. Underdressed teenage girls having tantrums after being told to put their bloody phone away for Christ’s sake. Sad looking, shopping-bag laden husbands waiting outside M&S and wondering where they went wrong in life. And why is it that the item you visit the brand shop specifically to try on isn’t in stock? But at least I got the zone I was after, PrincesZone, assignment complete.
Great question — this is a wordplay riddle, not a straightforward instruction, which is why direct translation feels confusing. Let’s unpack it properly.
Clear English Translation – Julkorv
The word occurs as part of a sausage name and is also the shorter title that the Englishman Charles previously had. Take a zone that either has something to do with the word, is located at a place connected to the word, or is connected to the word that is Charles’s new title.
What This Actually Means (Explained Simply)
This is a double-meaning clue built on the word “prins”:
1. Sausage Meaning
In Sweden, there is a type of sausage called: Prinskorv which literally means “prince sausage” — a small Christmas sausage traditionally eaten at Christmas (hence Julkorv). So the word “prins” (prince) appears inside a sausage name.
2. Prince Charles Meaning
The text then says: “the shorter title that the Englishman Charles previously had”.
That refers to: Prince Charles (before he became king). His new title is now: King (Kung).
What the Task Is Asking You to Do (for Turf)
You are being told to: capture a Turf zone that is connected to either:
• The word “prins” (prince)
• A place linked to “prins”
• OR something linked to Charles’s new title: King (Kung)
That means zones related to things like:
• Prince / Prins
• King / Kung
• Places named:
• Kungsgatan (King’s Street)
• Kungliga (Royal)
• Prinsgatan (Prince Street)
• Castles, royal statues, royal parks, etc.
Your Guess About Prince Charles Was 100% Correct
You were absolutely right to connect this to:
• Korv → Prinskorv
• Prince → Prince Charles
• Now King → Charles III
That is exactly what the clue is doing.
Final One-Sentence Summary
This clue tells you to take a Turf zone connected to “prince” (prins), royalty, or kingship, based on the wordplay between prinskorv (prince sausage) and Prince Charles becoming King.
Assignment No 5 – 5th December 2025 – The Name of the Place
What is Santa’s real name? Take 8 zones where the first letter of each zone name forms “Nicolaus”.
Interesting. More zones required this time and zones beginning with the letter U are as rare as wild haggis. So, first the research. Start with the Turf Map Tool, draw a polygon around the area I want to turf and download the list of zone names as a .txt file. Copy and paste into MS Word and sort in alphabetical order. Next, highlight all the zones starting with the letters in NICOLAUS and delete the remainder. Most zones are local here in Bonnyrigg with only two outliers, UpperDalPath and OldBattle, both not too far away. Next, email list to self to have available on the mobile phone. Sorted and ready to turf. However, off to B&Q first, turfing later.
Some time later. I had a choice of zones to select from and ended up with the following: NotFencedIn, IKnowBroom, ChesterGarden, OldBattle, LadyMarion, AuldCoal, UpperDalPath and Slytherin. I decided to use the Trek Farley fat bike for the two off-road zones, UpperDalPath, located across muddy fields and OldBattle, found along a muddy woodland trail. The other five zones were all in town and easier to take.
Assignment No 4 – 4th December 2025 – The Highlight of the Year
Take a zone where you can look down on the lower surroundings when you take the zone. Preferably a natural height or building. If you bring your own chair, photo evidence is required.
Where to go to fulfil this assignment? Should I take the easy way out and take the zone 5 minutes away on the bridge at Eskbank railway station? Or should I grab my climbing gear, sharpen the crampons, hire a Sherpa (turfer ChoccyMuffin), head into Edinburgh and take the best view we have, zone ArthursSeat? I chose the latter zone, not because it is easy, but because it is hard. And there’s also a nearby unique zone I want to get as well.
Assignment No 3 – 3rd December 2025 – Donald Duck
Traditions are meant to be followed. Like, for example, Donald Duck on Christmas Eve. Take zones where there are letters that form “DUCK”. Extra prize for the one who can do it with the LEAST number of zones.
Initially, I thought the Swedes were pulling my leg with this one but it seems that, since 1959, in Sweden and on Christmas eve, millions watch a Disney special featuring Donald Duck. well, you learn something new every day.
Now, this one is much better, more options for doing something more challenging and interesting. Of course, for simplicity, one might look for a zone with the word DUCK in it, however, my nearest one would be DuckPondZone in St Andrews, which is a 3-hour round trip in the car or 12-hour ride on the velocipede. Guess I’ll give that one a miss. So, what else? Well, the most obvious one for me is to take four zones one each beginning with the four letters in the word DUCK, and for added fun, in that order. So, that’s my plan for this assignment. Just need to locate the four zones. Back later.
It’s now sometime later and a trip down to the Portobello area of Edinburgh in the afternoon offered up the four zones I was looking for – DurhamPlaza, UnderThePower, CulletWalker and KayakZone. However, chatter on the Turf Scotland WhatsApp group reveals I should have been looking for zones to create the word KALLE ANKA, the Swedish term for Donald Duck. Initially, I thought I’d messed up but zones CulletWalker and KayakZone do contain all the required characters to make KALLE ANKA. Nice one!
Assignment No 2 – 2nd December 2025 – The Day After
Did you have too much mulled wine on the 1st of Advent? Take a zone where you see a place where you can buy headache pills.
Day two offers up another easy assignment with just a single zone required. This time, I chose zone Bonnyrigg located in the centre of the town and with a mini supermarket only a few meters away. I know you can purchase headache pills there as I’ve bought them there previously. Not for drinking too much mulled wine I might add, I cannot stand the stuff, it was when I had a very bad case of life-threatening man flu!
Assignment No 1 – 1st December 2025 – Three-way Intersection
There’s a lot about the number 3 at Christmas. The Trinity. And the three wise men who managed to arrive at the same time even though they came from different places. Take a zone near a three-way intersection (a T-intersection will do too).
A rather easy one to start. We, that’s ChoccyMuffin and myself, had an Amazon parcel to return, so a quite walk up to the town, grabbing a few zones along the way and YourDiary fitted the assignment just fine. Have you all remembered to add your Santa hat to your turfman icon?
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