Turf Zone – PythonCastle
The other day ChoccyMuffin and myself went for a walk in the countryside, and it was very strange indeed. We drove up to the small hamlet of Humbie in East Lothian, our aim was to go for a walk around Humbie church woods and then stop at the Humbie Hub café for lunch. As we strolled around the old church then along the circular woodland walk, we soon realised something was wrong.
After checking we are both awake and not in a dream, we realised what was wrong. We were not turfing! Our phones remained in our bags, dark and silent. No notification alerts telling us a zone was taken, or lost, or blocked. No need to work out where the next zone was, we just followed the red markers along the trail. No zones to head for and no discussion who gets the zone first. It just was not right.
Actually, I’m surprised there are no turf zones here. The old church is full of interest, the 2-mile woodland walk is ideal for zones and the Humbie Hub, a village shop/post office/café is also an ideal spot for a zone. I had a fried egg roll, and a bacon roll, both with tomato sauce, followed by a fruit scone and coffee. It was great. Just the thing to encourage turfers to the area and you can even post a letter as well, an increasingly rare thing these days. I’ve put in a request on the forum for zones at the church and the café. Hope to follow with some on the woodland walk later.
Other news. Good to see some turfers are actually taking part in the Planet Gary Turf Advent 2024. I always feel slightly anxious when posting the first few tasks, wondering if anyone will be taking part. But seeing posts on the WhatsApp group showing that turfers are enjoying themselves is very encouraging. Helps me stay enthused about another one next year. Is there is a next one, that is.
I can reveal it’s quite a challenge creating 24 advent tasks while still keeping them available to a many turfers as possible, with a high degree of achievability, yet not so easy in that all that is required is to take a few zones. And actually, writing down the words is the most difficult part while keeping them concise and readily understandable without being overly complicated, ambiguous and obscure. However, I must have got something right this year as not too many questions, at least so far.
We are a few days into Round #174 and I find myself on danger of relegation, sitting second from bottom with that nasty white downward pointing arrow beside my name. Actually, it’s not too bad. My 21,000 points is not all that far away from the next three turfers above me and I should be able to collect enough point to climb that board to a safer position. And indeed, that’s what happened. A quick scoot around Rosewell and Bonnyrigg brings me to around 30,000 points. Safe for today, at least.
Some interesting chat on WhatsApp about attributes, the Castle attribute in particular. Seems there are quite a few zones at castles that do not have the Castle attribute, or have the Ruin attribute. Happily, a few changes have been made and we now have a few more zones with the Castle attribute. Most fitting when there are around 2000 castles and towers in Scotland, though not all have turf zones at them, sadly. What we need now are a few hundred further Castle zones and a Castle medal to match. Back soon.
Copyright ©2024 Gary Buckham. All rights reserved.
