Rastaman got home from a very long day at work, and was exhausted after a bad day. He didn't want to cook. I didn't want to cook. He wanted to hole up in the bedroom with some pizza and beer and watch the Cowboys play their first game in the new stadium. I (as always), wanted family time before everyone went to their respective electronics devices.
So, without me saying a thing, Rastaman suggested a compromise - if you let me watch the game, I'll go boxing with the two of you tomorrow. Deal! One shopping trip and a frozen lasagna later, I was searching for local boxes that would make for a good first boxing trip for Rastaman.
After much searching, and hemming and hawing, and wavering on where I wanted to go, I finally settled on the Artists Series at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. I discovered several boxes that we could hunt for while we were there. Bright and early (ok, really more like noon-ish; a girl has to have sufficient coffee ya know!) we were off!
First, we went for Vincent's Sunflowers - the first in the Artist Series by Puddle Splasher. After some of the usual drama from our clue-bearer, we worked everything out so we were all in a good mood again. Alas, I apparently am no good at huffing, so the new brush markers we bought (and were hoping to use today) kept drying before I finished inking the stamp. We finally settled on using three of our new Cat's Eye ink pads in a lovely palette of blues and browns, and got a very nice image from it. Rastaman had the honor of stamping Vincent's Sunflowers into our logbook, and he was even afforded the privilege of replacing the box in it's hiding spot.
Next on the list was Monet's Water Lilies, the second in the Artist Series. Agent X had a wonderful time leading us through the rose gardens, and we took pictures near an enormous pecan tree we saw along the way.
The box was found straight away, but it took some time to stamp in because there were little children "rescuing" minnows from a defunct fountain to put them in a creek (seriously, I think the minnows had to all have been dead before the creek, quite sad really). We attempted the markers once again, since this stamp had less surface area. Worked well enough, but I'm still pretty certain that I need someone else to show me what the heck I'm doing wrong. Something to discuss at the Denton event I suppose!
As we sat there enjoying the scenery after stamping in, we soon realized that one of the other clues I printed out had a similar landmark listed in it. So, the O'Keefe's Red Poppy had to wait while we searched for The Garden Gnome. It had been rumored to be missing, but after re-reading the clue several times, we realized what we had been missing (sorta sad, considering it was at the very beginning of the clue!), and we found the gnome! Joy and mirth abounded, since we were just about to give up on it! Absolutely adorable stamp! I attempted the markers once again, with a bit of success. Decided to ink the little fella up in black to get a good image, and it ended up sticking to the page and peeling parts of the page away with it. I've always heard the gnomes like to be given presents, so I suppose the pieces of paper were our present to it. Gave the little fella a nice bath, and returned him to his home.
Off to find O'Keefe's Red Poppy, the last of the Artist Series. We thoroughly enjoyed the turtles in the pond we walked past - got some nice pictures of one eating what I think must have been cat food.
Rastaman got to play look-out while we stamped in. Definitely my favorite stamp of the series - all of them were truly amazing, but my mom is a big O'Keefe fan, and for quite some time, we had a Red Poppy print hanging in the kitchen when I was younger, so the piece holds a special place in my heart.
A Picnic Basket was next on the list - first though, Agent X had to run back to the very first bench we sat on, since his mini-compass had apparently been left there by accident. Fortunately, it was still there, and we were off on our next hunt. The Picnic Basket was a lovely carve also - at first, Agent X thought it was a turtle because there was a greenish blue tinge to it; he figured out what it was once he saw the stamped image.
Off we went to the car, since we were all hot, hungry and getting tired. Until I read some more of the clues and realized we had parked near two other boxes. We visited the POW-MIA memorial, and then the Charlie Company memorial. They were very moving tributes to some of the fine people who our country has lost in battle. Rastaman was Airborne when he was in the Army, so he had to give a loud HOO-HAH when he saw the Charlie Company memorial with the Airborne symbol.
We somehow managed to find Jake and Elwood despite the rudimentary compass we had in our possession. Gorgeous tribute to the Blues Brothers!
Went Squirrel hunting. Alas, I believe it has been muggled - but man, what a great spot it was!
Hungry and tired, and awfully close to the car, we decided we had to call it a day. Creepy Texas Critters and Ornette Coleman would have to wait for another day (hey, it's excuse to go back to the botanic gardens!).
All in all - today was a fabulous day of boxing!
So, today's lessons in letterboxing are:
- In well kept Botanic Gardens, the thorny vines can't catch me. HA! Take that thorny vine mafia!
- We really need a good compass that we can take degree readings on, so that we can find boxes easier than just knowing the general direction we're supposed to go. I should have taken the hint when I saw the compass icon on the listings, and we did manage to find the box, but not until we had been looking in the wrong place for a good hunk of time.
- The new setup I have for our boxing bag is working great - and whoever said on the AQ message boards that you could wrap camo duct tape around an old gift card, really knew what they were talking about! Brilliant!
- I really need to carve a new mini sig stamp for myself - the first one I ever carved was out of an eraser, and it's not holding up too well. Hadn't realized it until today, since I usually use the larger one, but we were trying to get all three stamps to fit on one page, and a 2"x2" stamp is just too big to fit other stamps on the same page. At least I have more carving materials on the way, and it'll be a good trial for the new magnifying lamp.
Happy Boxing!
RA
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