The Sonnets

Posted on October 26, 2014 by waterhigh

Forrest Fenn is writing poetry again. I’d love to watch over his shoulder and see him at work. Is it a messy process with lots of words crossed out? Or does he compose it in his head and only write what works? Does he adhere to form or formula? Or is he a free spirit, free verse wordsmith?

English: Title page of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1609) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Photo credit Wikipedia

Apparently William Shakespeare worried about leaving a legacy. At least the young man narrating the Bard’s first dozen or three sonnets did. He stood gazing marvelously in the mirror, pondering, and concluded that he’d just have to get married and have a son. {Okay. That’s more abbreviated than even a Cliff’s Notes version.} But, it made me think of the last chapter in Forrest Fenn’s Too Far To Walk where he gazes with marvel(?) in his mirror in a closing poem.

Legacy~~~

“Oh very young. What will you leave us this time?” Cat Stevens

Skydiver almost hit by meteor [Video]

Posted on October 8, 2014 by waterhigh

WordPress Echo for ThisIsIons.com

This is the first ever film of a meteorite hurling at terminal velocity towards Earth. It was filmed by skydiver Anders Helstrup who was almost struck by the object as it hurled through the sky.

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Riddle Me This

Posted on October 7, 2014 by waterhigh

Is the poem a riddle? Not a classic Who am I or What am I, but Where am I?

In which case, the first stanza would say something like I, the chest, went in there empty and then I went in there filled.

Which raises the next question—the critical point of it all—in There, aka the Secret Where.

If Forrest wrote the poem as if it was a classic riddle, he might have imagined himself as the box personified and given clues accordingly. Does this hold up?

So, if the bronze chest is speaking to you, (no, I haven’t gone ‘um die ecke’, not yet anyway), and says “Take it in the canyon down”, “it” can’t be the chest, right? Or, then again, “take it” might mean carry the chest . Different train of thought….

More wordplay? Google –How to Write a Riddle Poem, etc.

Up My Creek

Posted on September 26, 2014 by waterhigh

Play day.

A week and a half late but a perfect day for it.

(Inre: Warm waters/Putting In— I made a less than graceful re-entry after the picnic lunch. I need more practice.)

Monarch Butterfly Danaus plexippus Purple Coneflower 3008 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Monarchs everywhere lately!

Once the harvest is over, I may have more time for the Chase.

All Wet

Posted on September 15, 2014 by waterhigh

Just Ducky

So. We were going to celebrate 35 today by taking the kayaks out. A little rain never stopped us. (It’s not like it’s a ‘gully-washer’ or ‘toad-drownder’, as our OK friends would say.) Thunder and lightning, ( or ice,) though, is another story.

Kulusuk, Greenland. The old and the new: kayak ontop of a dogsled. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

But, as an old man once said (everyday of his life), “It’s a good day for it.”

Maybe. Maybe it’s a good day for frogs, toads, and other hoppy things.

Froggy Serenade?

Too Far To Walk

Yep, and later we might go out for pizza.

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” –Heraclitus

Ephesus on the coast of Asia Minor, birthplace of Heraclitus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Afraid of Nothing”?

Posted on September 11, 2014 by waterhigh

The “Afraid-of-Nothing” Dreadnoughtus schrani specimen recently uncovered in Patagonia is 7 times bigger than a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but I wonder how much brighter.

Skull of Tyrannosaurus rex, type specimen (CM 9380) at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. This was heavily and inaccurately restored with plaster using Allosaurus as a model, and has since been disassembled. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If T Rex was just a big chicken, brain-wise, no wonder he’s no longer around.Photo: cast of a Tyrannosaurus rex braincase at the Australian Museum, Sydney. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Tyrannosaurus rex “Sue” displayed at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Moveable Feast—solar-powered, auto open and close chicken coop/tractor built by Mr. W

I haven’t actually named the five hens, but one of the twin red ones is going to have to be called Ginger. Not that there’s a Professor. Possibly a Mrs. Howell…

Fearless, fearsome, or chicken?

Where the Wild Thyme Blows

Posted on September 7, 2014 by waterhigh

Thyme

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows….

Wm. Shakespeare

No wild times in Santa Fe next month. The Fenn gathering at the Loretto Inn and Spa has been canceled.

I’d like to have attended, and not just to meet the competition, though that in itself might prove fascinating.

And not that it would have been really wild, but you never know.

English: Wild thyme in the flower bed of a “garden à la française” in the park of the castle of Champs-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne), France. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Gold bars worth £10,000 buried on Folkestone beach

Posted on August 29, 2014 by waterhigh

If you happen to be over there….

Hiker stumbles upon 125 million year old dinosaur footprints

Posted on August 21, 2014 by waterhigh

Favorite Fennisms

Posted on August 16, 2014 by waterhigh

A year ago, I set off on my first hunt for the Fenn treasure. I’d hoped to wait until I had a complete solve, but I knew that the snows come early on the northern Rockies. I was confident that the chest was hidden somewhere north and west of Yellowstone, but couldn’t rule out the rest of Wyoming, so off I wandered, with Mr. Waterhigh’s blessing (and/or his desire that I find the gold.)

I emailed Forrest from West Yellowstone and entertained him with my story of not having the right shoes at the waters at the Continental Divide in YNP.

Forrest’s response—

“You’re having too much fun.”

I next emailed him from the Gallatin Valley to wish him a Happy Birthday, and he invited me to Santa Fe for a cup of coffee.

Decision—

Hmmm?

a.) Should I stay on course and hike to a ‘water high’ with just the grizzlies for company, or

b.) should I skip my night at the hot springs, which I really wanted to visit, and set my GPS for Santa Fe?

Forrest said,

“Life’s short and getting shorter.”

Really. It was an easy choice.

Besides, I can always go back to Montana with Mr. Waterhigh.

(We spent our 24th or 25th or 26th anniversary there. Next month is our 35th, but he’s tied up this year….)

I was somewhere in Colorado before I got ahold of Mr. W to tell him of my change of plans. He suggested I pull the old Colombo thing as I was leaving. You know, pop back in the door, “Oh. Just one more question, Mr. Fenn….” and hope to catch him off guard with the perfect question.

I didn’t, of course. I was pretty much speechless….

So, I did find treasure south of the mountains when I got to meet the remarkable Forrest Fenn. All in all, it was a fantastic trip/chase.

Possibly my favorite Fennism is found in the Epilogue of his book, The Thrill of the Chase—

“And what I’ve learned that’s most important is that both countries and people should know enough to just leave other folks alone and do a better job of protecting our planet.”

— By the way, his 84th birthday is next Friday, so why not surprise him with a “Happy Birthday” wish from all 304 of you blog followers.

(He’s in the phone book, otherwise I wouldn’t post his address–

1021 Old Santa Fe Trail in Santa Fe, New Mexico)

DON’T just show up in his driveway! I’m thinking cards, flowers, chocolates, …. No wait. That’s me.

82-Year-Old Man Buries Treasure Worth $2 Million With Poem As Clue

Where Do I Begin…

Posted on August 7, 2014 by waterhigh

Clues, bei Syke (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Where to begin?

Where did Forrest begin when he wrote the poem? With the first clue, or the ninth?

“I knew all along where I wanted to hide the treasure so I didn’t need a map or any information to write the poem. Everything was in my head. It took me a while to get the wording exactly how I wanted it. Counting the clues and hiding the chest came later. It is not likely that anyone will find it without following the clues, at least in their mind.” Forrest Fenn

{So, in my mind, it sounds like it’s possible to solve this treasure hunt from a distance, which is good news for people in the Midwest, or Europe, or any other of the xxx countries you visitors are from.)

Also, maybe the number of clues isn’t so important?? I don’t know.}