Just in case you were wondering, the photo at right is not a geocache.

I met briefly with Maggie Maguire, CEO of the Abbotsford Convent today about my interest in placing a geocache on the Convent grounds. On the way, I stopped to pick up Down on the Farm, a popular cache at nearby Collingwood Children’s Farm, to take with me to the meeting.

Ms. Maguire seemed resistant to the idea at first, but was curious enough to ask where I would imagine placing the cache. After I’d outlined some of the considerations for placing a cache, she seemed a little confused, and asked “Just how big is it?”

I pulled the small, one-litre plastic container out of my bag, placed it on the table, and explained that it was actually a fairly large cache by urban standards. She relaxed visibly. “That’s the whole thing?” she wondered as I opened it up and showed her the contents.

It seems that when I’d originally described geocaches as “small containers”, she had immediately thought of Monkey’s solar studio, a solar-powered recording studio housed in a standard shipping container in a secluded corner of the Convent property. I guess “small” is a relative term!

Once she understood that all we were talking about was a little plastic container, Ms. Maguire warmed to the idea immediately, expressing her amazement that geocaching was indeed a popular pastime. “I think it’s very cute,” she said more than once.

Before I left, she offered several good ideas for where the cache might be placed, and what other features of the Convent the clues for finding it might involve. Now I need to take a walk around the Convent to find a good spot.