Turf Blog 12-02-25

Turf particles have been few and far between on Planet Gary these past few weeks, almost none existent, in fact. Ah, what is a turf particle you ask? Well, a turf particle is largely unknown to mainstream science though clever people with a plethora of letters after their names, have discovered quite a few exotic particles, anywhere from 12 to 200, depending on what Google comes up with. But they haven’t found the turf particle, a subatomic wee elemental beastie so small you cannot actually see them, that travels through space and time in search of a receptive mind.

Not everyone has a receptive mind to the turf particle, most people do not, only a few have the necessary brain receptors to benefit from a turf particle. One struck me back in late December 2020, when I first started turfing. However, turf particles have a half-life and decay over time, usually resulting in the turfer losing interest in the game of turf. And that is what I suspect has happened to me these past few months, the turf particle has lost its potency and left me without any enthusiasm for turf.

However, after my turf session into Edinburgh this morning I find myself fully enthused about turf again. Somewhere in Edinburgh, as I cycling along with Mr Bumble, my single speed Brompton, searching for turfer uniques and some unique zones, a turf particle must have been passing by and noticed a turfer in distress. How long it had been searching for a suitable host, we shall never know, but today it was lucky and fulfilled its one purpose in life, to inspire people to become turfers.

Turf Zone – MargaretsLoch

Anyway, today I was inspired to carry on turfing. I’d started off at Leith Links, where you can be fairly certain of finding a free parking space. The area is a good kick-off point for this side of Edinburgh, as well as the city centre. I’m often amazed how quickly you can cover ground on a bike. My first targets were three unique zones in the Canonmills area, zones BellevueGreen, ClaremontCres and WarristonBike. A further bonus was that WarristonBike was also a turfer unique, held by turfer VicentESOC.

Next it was across to Inverleith for another turfer unique, at zone HiddenView, to bag turfer ohshoot! After that my original plan was to cycle across towards the Silverknowes are for a couple of unique zones, then return along the coast back to the car. However, I noticed that two further turfer uniques had appeared while I was turfing up towards the town centre. The first at zone Together, located on George Street and held by turfer Nachoz. The second was zone Grassmarket, held by Alfordlass. Both these turfers have eluded me in the past, so I changed my plans and headed for the city centre.

Of course, this meant a steep climb all the way up to Princess Street, and I’m not ashamed to say I walked up Comely Bank Avenue. It was far too steep for a single speed and nasty cobbles to boot. Thought I could pick off the Silverknowes unique zones any time but turfer uniques around the city centre never hang about for long. Both zones were taken from me by other turfer within an hour or so. A nice bonus to the morning’s session.

Turf Zone – LochendPark

With my turf mission accomplished, and more besides, I set off back to the car, picking off a few zones along the way. So, down the Cowgate, past the Scottish Parliament building, through Holyrood Park and then across to Lochend Park. I’d heard from other turfers about sighting of rats around the loch here but had never seen anything on previous visits. Okay, you may be wondering why I want to see a rat? Well, I created an unofficial series of turf medals called Nature Watch, where you try to spot wild animals from within a turf zone.

To date, I’ve managed both the Nature Watch 5 and Nature Watch 10 medals and have spotted a total of 15 different animals so far towards the Nature Watch 25. Lochend seemed like a good potential location for another animal to add to the list. A nice rat would be ideal. And did I see a rat? Well, no, I didn’t see a rat, I saw not one, not two, not even three, but four rats all scurrying about the edge of the loch at zone LochendLoch, with another rat at zone LochendPark. This brings my tally to 16, so only another 9 animals required. Tried to get photo of Rattus rattus but they were a bit mobile phone shy!

My list of animals to date  is rabbit, dog, bat, hare, horse, roe deer, fox, sheep, cattle, badger, cat, common seal, grey seal, donkey, alpaca and rat and if anyone knows of any other animals I might see from a turf zone, please drop me a line.

Here’s the details of the Nature Watch medal if anyone is interested.

Nature Watch
Your task for this medal is to identify different species of animal from within turf zones. There are medals available for 5, 10 and, this is perhaps something of a long shot, 25 animals. Animals can be wild, tame or domestic, be they Badass the Badger, Hooray Henry the Horse, Mickey le Moose, Hardcore the Hamster, Shaun the Sheep, Raunchy the Rabbit, Happy Harriet the Highland Haggis or even an escaped animal from the zoo. All count as long as they are witnessed from within a turf zone. Each species of animal only counts once and no limit to the number of zones used. Should be fun and quite possibly a mighty challenge as well.

That’s all folks, have fun!

Copyright ©2025 Gary Buckham. All rights reserved.