Two mysteries

Two strange mysteries have befallen me of late; the strange case of the moving glasses and the mystery of the disappearing Chestnut tree.

I have a habit of wearing my glasses on my head for convenience. They are reading glasses which I only need to look at things close up. e.g. measuring. The trouble is, I forget that they’re on my head. That is, until they invariably get knocked off.

That is what happened one day as I was fishing around under the tarp on the truck. I put them to one side by the kerb, then continued my rummage. Later on, I remembered my glasses and went to retrieve them. But lo! They had disappeared. I thought, “Strange. Perhaps I did pick them up.” I searched the caravan thoroughly. No sign of them. I searched all around the truck. Nothing. “Perhaps I’m mistaken and my ‘gigs’ had been knocked off of my head and onto the back of the truck, now lost amongst the wood. In which case, forget digging through that lot.” I went to the cupboard and grabbed a spare pair.

A few days later, I sat on my bed as I often do, except that on this occasion I became aware that I had just sat on something. It was my glasses. I went to put them away in their case. It was at this point that I discovered that I had sat on the missing pair! I am at a loss as to how a pair of glasses can disappear from the kerb by the truck and reappear days later on my bed. Odd.

Some weeks ago Michael and I picked a good bagful of hazelnuts. Last year I was too slow and lost them all to the squirrels. The woods here are predominantly Hazel. As a result, the woods are full of squirrels. And they’re some size, too; the size of a small cat, in some cases!

The hedge here is full of blackberries. This year seems a bumper year. There are bunches of 20+ berries in places. I picked a load. I then went around the corner to where there is an Apple tree from which I had picked a few apples last year, so grabbed some to make a crumble. As I was picking the apples, I noticed a Chestnut tree close by that was full of nuts. I thought, “I’ll come back tomorrow when Michael is here so that he can give me a hand, as I will need to set a ladder in amongst the brambles.” The next day, with the ladder on my shoulder and Michael in tow, we wandered round to the tree I had spotted. But whoa!! What the...? No tree! Not a Chestnut, anyway. Plenty of Ash, loads of Hazel, some Sycamore, Holly and the Apple tree, but no Chestnut! We wandered up and down the road several times. I was bemused. “How can a tree just disappear!?” Strange. Eventually, we wandered back home, empty handed.

I made the crumble. It was tasty!