Damselflies and Geocaching

Have you guys heard of Geocaching? If you haven't, why not? It's a worldwide, real-life, outdoor treasure hunt game. Sign up, plug in coordinates to your GPS-enabled device, and off you go to find all the hidden containers--called geocaches--in your area and beyond.

My MIL and I got into geocaching about two weeks ago thanks to our friend Jeff. So far, she's logged three geocaches and I've logged two. There are so many in our area, I can't believe it! I want to find them all!

We found a small, basic cache at Oak Bank Park two weeks ago...
It contained a tiny log, which we signed, then we logged our find online and left a comment!

Yesterday we went walking with a family friend, Carol, to Pomona Mills Park here in Thornhill. It's one of our favourite spots, and it stays nice and cool from the blazing June sun. We knew there was a geocache at the entrance of the park, so we began hunting for it. After my MIL got attacked by stinging nettles, she retrieved the cache and we took it to a bench where nobody could see us (in geocaching, you have to be VERY careful that people don't see you retrieving or placing caches, because they run a high risk of getting stolen and countless numbers of them have).

Like most geocaches, this one contained small trinkets. It also contained a travel bug, which I'm very excited about! A travel bug is a small item that has a code on it, and it can be tracked online. It's not a trinket that a cacher can keep; they have to move it to another cache as soon as possible. This one originated in New Hampshire. I would love to move it north to Lake Simcoe or Muskoka or something, but I might place it closer than that since it needs to happen ASAP. It may just wind up in the cache at the end of the Leslie Spit in Toronto this weekend!

Besides the excitement of geocaching, we also came across some gorgeous ebony jewelwing damselflies fluttering all over the riverbanks. I had never seen these before. It was like we had come across faeryland.

The brightly coloured males were aggressively pursuing the paler females; I learned later (thanks, Wikipedia!) that they mate in the summertime.

Here's a shot of the Don River and one of several beaver dams :)

I hope you all have a lovely Monday and don't melt in this heat! I'll update in the next couple of days with how my container garden is progressing, and then again on the weekend after we hit the St. Lawrence Market and the Leslie Spit! :)