Turf zone – CaltonHill
Task No. 18 – 18th December – Turf Shopping
Easy Option
Your task is to select and take any 5 zones where the zone name includes something that can be purchased in a typical supermarket such as Tesco, Morrisons, Aldi, Sainsbury’s or the like. One item per zone. Foreign or other language equivalents acceptable.
Challenging Option
As described in, and in addition to Easy, take another 5 zones where the zone name includes something that cannot be purchased in a supermarket. Bonus entry in the prize draw if you can find scone or scones in the zone name.
Not much I can say about this one other than perhaps I made it too easy. I had thought of including the words “and consumed” in the Easy Option after “purchased” but chose not too. Might keep that for next year. Bannock, for those outside Scotland, is a cake.
Easy zones: KirkCockpen, Bannockrigg, YourDiary, Strawberries, Peppermint.
Challenging: PeacocksBeard, GroovyFarm, ChesterGarden, AuldCoal, BattleForest.
Now for some entirely different. Voting for the new Turf medals is here, though only for Turf Supporters, so let the moths fly free from your wallet and sign up if you want to vote. It’s only €30 or £25.81 a year, or only 7p a day. You can cast your vote HERE. The medals are as follow:
Heritage: Series of medals for number of unique visited world heritage zones.
Later: Take a zone that has been owned by 10 different persons that day. (24 hours).
Mountaineer: Series of medals for number of unique visited summit zones.
Greeter: Assist 25 different players in a week (7 days).
Monumentalist: Series of medals for number of unique visited monument zones.
Right, into analysis mode. My initial reaction was one of disappointment, even more so when I started looking at just how many suitable zones were available here in the Scotland. With the first one, Heritage, there are only 6 World Heritage zones in Scotland and one of them is on St. Kilda, located 40 miles out in the Atlantic. Another is in the Orkney Islands. It’s going to be tricky getting to St. Kilda on a bicycle! Okay, World Heritage sites are rare, so fair enough. Personally, I feel that we should not be encouraging extensive travel in these times of climate change.
For the Mountaineer series of medals, we have 1 zone here in Scotland, called The Ben, on Scotland highest mountain Ben Nevis and about 10 more across the Border in England and Wales. So, I’m even less impressed with this one. Doesn’t seem much point to this one, even in Scandinavian countries. Though, perhaps, there are plans to add that attribute to some existing zones.
The Monumentalist series of medals is no doubt the best for us Scots turfers with around 228 in Scotland, 339 in England. Now I’m happy in that there’s something I can actually achieve hopefully without extensive travel. Keeping my fingers crossed that the Monumentalist series will get the vote.
Of the remaining medals, Greeter, that requires you to assist 25 different players in a week, I could see myself having to lurk about busy turfing areas like the centre of Edinburgh at the weekend and hunt down any nearby turfers for an assist. The final medal, Later, which requires you to take a zone that has been owned by 10 different persons that day is an interesting one and quite a challenge. Firstly, how do you know it’s been taken 10 times in the past 24-hours? No doubt there will be a way.
Actually, I’m now feeling more enthusiastic now and hope the Monumentalist series will get the most votes. Would have liked to see medals for number of unique visited bridge and train station zones but perhaps they may appear in the future. Back soon.
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