martlakes

My auto-renewing membership happened ok. From my credit card: 30.00 USD AT 0.59500/GBP which equals £17.85 plus NON-STERLING TRANSACTION FEE £0.53 so £18.38 total £1.50 a month to access a pretty functional website which has useful listings on seems quite reasonable IMHO. Much less than I pay for some other things, many of which are less fun! They did seem to mess up the comms issue re VAT(again) and there's a fair confusion over different prices and things. I struggle to see Groundspeak as part of the Evil Empire though. I can think of worse organisations!

Aye, the layers which show the areas where specific permission details are required. Inc, above, plus nature reserves and Woodland Trust. It's really useful being able to access Magic so easily when thinking of hiding caches. Thanks very much for maintaining GME, it's really amazingly useful, helpful and adds so much to planning sessions! Thanks!

Arnside estuary, Morecambe Bay http://coord.info/GC1KHDE Mull of Galloway http://coord.info/GC3TZWA My album of sunsets!

In Morecambe Bay: Hest Bank Wharf http://coord.info/GC23FNC In an old church: St Gregory's, Vale of Lune http://coord.info/GC3FP9Y In an old mine: HH0: Mine, all mine! http://coord.info/GC1QAWB Thought I'd offer 3 since it's been rather quiet this month!

Referee! Surely it doesn't count if it was during a DNF!!! T'is a great pic though. Amazing how still and reflective water can be, especially when its cold.

Here's a couple from this year that I like. Quite a few more and hard to choose just two! (so, I've added a third of the 12/12/12 event just for the joy of it. More here: http://s1069.beta.photobucket.com/user/Mart-Heretic/library/Cumbria%20Caching Here's a cool cache location, come on in! http://coord.info/GC3NEE9 Another great tree at sunset. http://coord.info/GC3XHKA The 12/12/12 mob at Sizergh Castle. http://coord.info/GC3XM4K

Frowning upon placing a cache that deliberately sets out to invite people to accept the challenge of playing with the traffic, isn't being too 'safety conscious', it's just common sense that it's a risk involving others that doesn't need to be taken just for the 'fun of it'.

Please please please - do not quote the previous post and include the photo again and again and again! We only need to see it once. Thanks

I think it's a daft place for a cache. Crossing a road like that should involve someone's full attention or they could easily end up like a hedgehog. There is also the public perception aspect. How sensible and sane would this placement appear to non-cachers? If it looks 'stupidly dangerous' then it's simply not a good idea. If anything ever happened to someone and it came out that they were geocaching in the middle of a main road, how might that impact our hobby? Hmmmmm! Does the cache owner fancy standing in a coroner's court trying to explain why they set this cache, and then face the press outside, and the grieving relatives - of the car driver, killed when they had to avoid a geocacher, and caused a crash with a lorry. Setting a challenging cache that involves others in the form of muggle drivers isn't a good idea under any circumstances, and it would seem the point of the cache is to "play with the traffic". This is completely different to climbing caches etc where the risk is to yourself, and can be easily managed with the right gear and know-how. Ok, it's perhaps a small risk that this cache will lead to terrible consequences, but it's not very far fetched. The likelyhood may be small but the potential outcomes are horrendous. We really don't need to take this sort of risk, so let's not approve caches that do. Simlple really.

Heaven & Earth. Head for Heversham http://coord.info/GC10Z96 A hole in the earth. Hincaster Tunnel http://coord.info/GC3QWT8

This was one I recently archived due to changes in the info and all the locals have found it and so only gets the odd visit. Worked well for a few years. http://coord.info/GC1WHE5 Chris - you are surely kidding!! Seriously, you can't mention beer? Or do you actually mean the brand of beer? That might make more sense!

People always mention the cache still being 'active' on another site. Well, if so, all the CO has to do is either respond to the Reviewer's log asking for maintenance or some communication before it gets archived, or simply archive it themselves. I don't know the exact figures obviously but I would guess that most forced archiving is done because the COs just disappear into the electronic void. No response, not signing into their account, not maintaining the cache, reports of it being wet, etc etc etc. Just how "active" is it going to be on some other site then???? If it's wet and log full on GC.com it is still in the same sorry state on OC.com or OC.org or whatever! If you want to ignore Groundspeak's site, then archive your cache listing and carry on doing whatever you do on whatever other site you wish. But most situations aren't like this. The CO just disappears leaving a soggy wet box behind them. The problem is, by just archiving the listing Groundspeak have the effect of creating litter and bringing the game into disrepute with normal people. De-listing doesn't solve the problem of a crappy bit of litter left in the hedge. I have suggested before that local groups of cachers should be notified of forced archives and also be able to search the database for them. Then, all legalities aside from GC's pov, the locals can decide if the box has been abandoned and go and collect it at some point. Also not being a multi-billion dollar company, local 'anonymous' cachers aren't worth suing in the highly unlikely event someone wanted their old Chinese take-away container back! At present, once delisted, the cache fades from memory and sits and rots. I think the attempts some reviewers make in trying to solve the litter problem are good. How useful they are when the cache has been archived for non-contact is debatable. Groundspeak should make forced archived caches searchable and flash in red on the map for 3 months, thus letting the community take care of the litter! I'm perfectly happy doing my bit, as per this cache in 2008: http://coord.info/GC18FYX

I think, having watched various Olympic sports/gymnastics this summer, many here would expect a low mark: good arm position but as for the legs! Hardly horizontal, and no pointed toes!

If only I'd entered my pic from a trip to Chapel Island!

And here's another, from a cache yet to be published! Safie the dawg jumping out of a pool.

In the NW Lakes a few weeks back: GC2A5V8

I seem to recall something legal changing several years back, but can't remember exactly what. Something like Council's don't now have to enforce control, or something. Possibly it is because we don't use a lot of horse transport any more so it's not as important to keep it bashed down. I know, if you own a horse or two, you probably see it differently. So since the policy/legal change it has become much more common, especially on road sides and non-cultivated areas. Council's have also changed their mowing policies. "luckily" the desire to enrich the environment and enable/encourage wild flowers and 'natural' corridors for wildlife, fits very nicely with saving some money through fewer mows and hedge trims. Conservationists pointed out that if you mow at the end of the summer, many plants have dropped their ripened seeds, thus more flowers next year. Similarly, if you trim hedges a bit later they provide better nesting opportunities for birds in spring. It does actually make sense to 'think' about when and how to do these things rather than doing them on a fixed date/schedule. Bit like turning the school central heating off cos it's the 1st May, and back on again in October, despite the weather! Councils became keen when they realised it could save them some money. "scruffy" roadsides can now be seen as wildlife preserves and not as "unkempt"!

There's also this App, but not found one for midgets! http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/scottish-midge-forecast-uk/id375094872?mt=8

I was hoping the only thing that bugs me about the app might have been changed in this update but it appears not. Rest of app is great and I use it a lot and it works well. Not tried the new version in the wild yet! The thing I'd like 'sorted' is this: Open PQ list of caches, nicely listed by nearest. Navigate to a cache, find cache, log cache. Back to list of caches - now sorted by some random criteria (alphabetical by GC code?) Have to re-sort to Nearest (ok only two button touches but ...) Open next cache in series, find etc. Back to list, random sort, sort again to Nearest. Repeat endlessly. Please make the list of caches to default to nearest on every visit to the list, not just when first opened. Doing a trail of caches or switching to other caches, checking out the next one or another nearest etc and it's surprising how many times you have to keep doing the two-touch re-sort to nearest. It becomes quite tedious over a long cache trip. Thanks for the rest of the app though!

I was hoping the only thing that bugs me about the app might have been changed in this update but it appears not. Rest of app is great and I use it a lot and it works well. Not tried the new version in the wild yet! The thing I'd like sorted is this: Open PQ list of caches, nicely listed by nearest. Navigate to a cache, find cache, log cache. Back to list of caches - now sorted by some random criteria (alphabetical by GC code?) Have to re-sort to Nearest (ok only two button touches but ...) Open next cache in series, find etc. Back to list, random sort, sort again to Nearest. Repeat endlessly. Please make the list of caches to default to nearest on every visit to the list, not just when first opened. Doing a trail of caches or switching to other caches, checking out the next one or another nearest etc and it's surprising how many times you have to keep doing the two-touch re-sort to nearest. It becomes quite tedious over a long cache trip. Thanks for the rest of the app though!

To find them they could just look at Waymarking and check out the Victorian post box category which has them all nicely listed! As you, I've no idea why it would be a problem.

Thankfully, also fairly unlikely to get shot!

All seems to fine again. Just a site burp last night.

GME works fine for me - excellent stuff. For some reason this evening, I'm not seeing any geocaches at all displayed on the map. Weird. ETA The whole site seems to have ground to a halt.

I'm cured I think! Back in 2008 I was a sorry case. See the log for this cache: DO NOT FIND THIS CACHE - Are you an addict? (NW) Log