Dan Q wrote note for GC9EXX4 Friar’s Farm – Bisected Byway

This checkin to GC9EXX4 Friar's Farm - Bisected Byway reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Checked up on this cache while the dog and I were nearby. It’s in fine condition and ready to find. The latch for the container is beginning to rust, but the whole thing is perfectly serviceable. Go find it!

A French Bulldog at the end of a red lead, near a kissing gate in a hedgrerow.
The dog helped check up on the cache.
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Goodbye, Slippers

Yesterday, owing to some plot, the dog didn’t get as much outside/walk/play time as she’d like.

Today, she let me know how she felt about that by shredding my slippers. 🙄

A partially-shredded slipper is held in a hand, in front of a French Bulldog, on the wooden floors of the hallway of a house.

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Spring is coming

A lunchtime dog walk was made especially delightful by the growing warmth of the approaching British springtime. It’s really bright and pretty out, this afternoon!

A French Bulldog in a harness but no lead stands in front of a empty field, under bright blue skies with sparse clouds. Bare wintery trees can be seen in the background, bathed in warm yellow light.

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Dan Q found GC2F23P A Road Anarchy – A40 Eastbound to Oxford

This checkin to GC2F23P A Road Anarchy - A40 Eastbound to Oxford reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

No logs here since… 2023!? Mindboggling.

The geopup and I were out running some errands this damp afternoon and figured we’d take a walk near here. Spotting the cache on our radar we took a short diversion to find this cache, which despite not having a visitor yet this year nor for the entirety of last year is in perfect condition. A quick and easy find as cars whooshed past us, then a muddy meander back past the drainage works and on our way.

SL. TFTC, and a pity-FP awarded simply for being a well-maintained but under-appreciated cache.

Dan with his dog on a muddy footpath.

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Dan Q found GCA1K70 Oak Protection

This checkin to GCA1K70 Oak Protection reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

After claiming the FTF on the new cache to the North East, the geohound and I continued our walk with a wander through thy woods, eventually finding ourselves near this gate. I’d nearly attempted this cache during a previous visit to these woods but IIRC was dragged right past it by impatient dogs, children, or both. 😂

Today, though, it was a QEF for the doggo and I. Fun container and a good size too, FP awarded. TFTC!

Dan Q found GCB2FZ4 Family Fun #2

This checkin to GCB2FZ4 Family Fun #2 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

FTF! It’s been a while since I’ve typed that!

Woke this morning slightly hungover and figured a nice walk with the geopup might help me feel better. And what an opportunity: a brand new cache only a short way from home!

Jumped in the car and zipped up to Church Hanborough, parking near the cemetery/allotments because the church bells were ringing and all the parking spots nearer to the centre of thy village were occupied by churchgoers. Walked up the paths to the GZ and had sight of the cache’s shiny container before we were even there. Retrieval was quick and easy, but we had to wait a while before we could return it to it’s hiding place because a large group of dog walkers (one of whom was holding court on how he was confident that Donald Trump would soon “dismantle the Deep State” 🙄) were passing.

Dan, wearing a grey jacket at the edge of a wet and wintry forest, waves to the camera with a hand that also holds a dog lead, the other end of which is connected to a French Bulldog wearing a teal jumper.

Soon signed vs returned and on our way. TFTC!

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Dan Q did not find GC8KR7D Motorway Mayhem (another one)

This checkin to GC8KR7D Motorway Mayhem (another one) reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

The geohound and I braved an explore of this litter-filled GZ but couldn’t spot a cache among the copious detritus before the whiny little thing started fighting to get back to the warm of the car and to the rest of her “pack”. Maybe next time we pass by this way.

A French Bulldog in a teal jumper stands near a diverted traffic sign, half-buried in leaf litter.

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Note #25448

Compared to the children, the dog is Not So Impressed by the deep snowfall we’ve just received. To be fair, it’s basically up to get armpits!

(leg-pits? I don’t know what the right word is for a canine!)

A French Bulldog up to the top of her legs in deep snow.

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Dan Q found GC80592 Coffee, Cache and Dash

This checkin to GC80592 Coffee, Cache and Dash reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

QEF while stopped for a confort break on a long journey North from Oxford. The dog wanted to go with the others into the services, but had to stay outdoors with me and hunt for the cache. Solid hint!

Dan, wearing a high-vis jacker, sits at a bench outside a motorway service station building. His dog, a small French Bulldog, pulls at her lead towards the entrance.
Silly dog, you’re not allowed inside!
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My Ball

Our beloved-but-slightly-thick dog will sometimes consent to playing fetch, but one of her favourite games to play is My Ball. Which is a bit like fetch, except that she won’t let go of the ball.

It’s not quite the same as tug-of-war, though. She doesn’t want you to pull the toy in a back-and-forth before, most-likely, giving up and letting her win1. Nor is My Ball a solo game: she’s not interested in sitting and simply chewing the ball, like some dogs do.

A champagne-coloured French Bulldog on a black-and-white rug, indoors, stands while chewing a lime green tennis ball.
I’d like to imagine the grunts and snorts she makes at about this moment actually translate to “My ball. Myyyy… ballll. Myyyyy ball! MY BALL! My… BALL!”

No, this is absolutely a participatory game. She’ll sit and whine for your attention to get you to come to another room. Or she’ll bring the toy in question (it doesn’t have to be a ball) and place it gently on your foot to get your attention.

Your role in this game is to want the ball. So long as you’re showing that you want the ball – occasionally reaching down to take it only for her to snatch it away at the last second, verbally asking if you can have it, or just looking enviously in its general direction – you’re playing your part in the game. Your presence and participation is essential, even as your role is entirely ceremonial.

A champagne-coloured French Bulldog in a doorway, on a tiled floor, holds a braided rope; a human hand barely holds the other end.
This might look like a game of tug-of-war, but you’ll note that my grip is just barely two-fingered. She’s not pulling, because she doesn’t need to unless I try to take the toy. This is My Rope, she knows.

Playing it, I find myself reminded of playing with the kids when they were toddlers. The eldest in particular enjoyed spending countless hours playing make-believe games in which the roles were tightly-scripted2. She’d tell me that, say, I was a talking badger or a grumpy dragon or an injured patient but immediately shoot down any effort to role-play my assigned character, telling me that I was “doing it wrong” if I didn’t act in exactly the unspoken way that she imagined my character ought to behave.

But the important thing to her was that I embodied the motivation that she assigned me. That I wanted the rabbits to stop digging too near to my burrow3 or the princess to stay in her cage4 or to lie down in my hospital bed and await the doctor’s eventual arrival5. Sometimes I didn’t need to do much, so long as I showed how I felt in the role I’d been assigned.

A toddler with long blonde hair, wearing a pink cardigan, sits on a tall stool in front of a kitchen sink, holding a long-handled scrubbing brush.
In this game, the chef was “making soup” (in the sink, apparently) and my job was to “want the soup”.

Somebody with much more acting experience and/or a deeper academic comprehension of the performing arts is going to appear in the comments and tell me why this is, probably.

But I guess what I mean to say is that playing with my dog sometimes reminds me of playing with a toddler. Which, just sometimes, I miss.

Footnotes

1 Alternatively, tug-of-war can see the human “win” and then throw the toy, leading to a game of fetch after all.

2 These games were, admittedly, much more-fun than the time she had me re-enact my father’s death with her.

3 “Grr, those pesky rabbits are stopping me sleeping.”

4 “I’ll just contentedly sit on my pile of treasure, I guess?”

5 Playing at being an injured patient was perhaps one of my favourite roles, especially after a night in which the little tyke had woken me a dozen times and yet still had some kind of tiny-human morning-zoomies. On at least one such occasion I’m pretty sure I actually fell asleep while the “doctor” finished her rounds of all the soft toys whose triage apparently put them ahead of me in the pecking order. Similarly, I always loved it when the kids’ games included a “naptime” component.

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The Dog and The Snowman

On the way to school this morning, the 10-year-old lagged behind to build a small snowman.

On the way back, the dog saw the snowman, which wasn’t there when she’d passed earlier. She wanted to make it clear that she Did. Not. Trust. it. She stood back and growled at it for a while, and then, eventually, was persuaded to come closer.

Leaning as far as her little legs could manage, she stretched to carefully sniff it while keeping her distance. She still wasn’t entirely happy and ran most of the way to the end of the path to get away from the mysterious cold heap.

A champagne-coloured French Bulldog wearing a teal jumper leans hard to sniff at (while avoiding getting too close to) a small snowman about the same size as her, on a footpath mostly covered with snow (except for a patch from which the snowman's materials were clearly extracted).

(This same dog earlier this year spent quarter of an hour barking at our wheelbarrow when, unusually, it was left in the middle of the lawn, rather than beside the shed. She doesn’t like change!)

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Dan Q found GC656RM Church Micro 8564…Ducklington

This checkin to GC656RM Church Micro 8564...Ducklington reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

The dog and I came out to Ducklington today for a spot of geohashing, in search of the 2024-11-14 51 -1 geohashpoint. After a walk around the fields to the East we had to give up on that expedition (for reasons that’ll be described in my geohashing log) so we decided to console ourselves with a hunt for this nearby geocache, instead.

Solving the first part was made harder when I failed to read the description properly and started counting letters in the sign, rather than the plaque, but once we’d corrected that mistake we were on our way.

At the GZ there was a clear trail that looked likely, but the dog took some coaxing to join us. As soon as I was at the coordinates (feeling like I was hiding in a bush!) and followed the hint instructions the cache was an easy find. TFTC!

Geohashing expedition 2024-11-14 51 -1

This checkin to geohash 2024-11-14 51 -1 reflects a geohashing expedition. See more of Dan's hash logs.

Location

Field East of Ducklington, West Oxfordshire

Participants

Plans

Not certain, but might be able to make this one!

Expedition

The dog and I drove out to Ducklington, parking near the church, and walked out to these fields. Unfortunately the hashpoint turns out to be 33+ metres into a field full of sheep. That _might’ve_ been the kind of trespassing I’d have been willing to consider, were it not for the combination of the amount of pedestrian traffic (a whole platoon of birdwatchers, armed with extra-long camera lenses, and every dog walker under the sun!) and the fact that I had the dog with me (who’d have to have waited unhappily outside the field: not taking her _into_ a field of sheep, even by only 33 metres).

GPS receiver in front of a field. The compass points deeper into the field and the screen reports that the destination is 32 metres away. Sheep are (barely) visible in the field, in the distance.
So near, and yet so far…

Instead, then, we took a pleasant walk around Ducklington and found the GC656RM “Church Micro 8564…Ducklington” geocache, so it wasn’t entirely a wasted trip. The dog’s come home and zonked out in her basket after a decent walk, anwyay!

Dan and his dog on a footpath with a field in the background.
Sad-face Dan and dog, near the hashpoint.

Tracklog

Map showing a walk around Ducklington, including out to near a field to the East and back.

Download tracklog.

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