Tell me about a random unsolved mystery in your life....

My gran remarried and my stepgrandad's spinster sister, Maud, lived with them as he had promised his mother on her death bed that he would always look after his sister Maud. My gran disliked Maud intensely and made her live in a separate wing of the house. Maud was allowed to come through to make her supper drink at 7.20pm every day. She died before I was born, but that kitchen door creaked open at 7.20pm every bloody night and my gran would say 'its only Maud'.

In our family ever since, if a door creaks and moves, we say.. 'oh its only Maud'.

A couple of years ago, when our littlest cat was just a kitten, I heard her playing with something, rolling it around, under the kitchen table. It was a small white egg. Google said pigeon's egg. But how did it get out of the nest, and how did it get inside the house? She couldn't have rolled it, because the garden door was open, but it's a sliding glass door with a metal track about two inches high. I mentioned it to the vet and he said to check the loft for nests , Didn't find any, thank God. Did she climb a tree, take the egg from a nest and carry it into the house in her mouth?

Another egg-related one, since it is Easter. While raking leaves out from under the hedge I found a whole, unbroken hen's egg. Haven't seen any chickens wandering through my garden lately... decided one of the neighbour kids had put it there for some reason. Very careful not to smash it as it might have been there for months. Then last night around 1 am when I opened the window to let one of the cats in I heard a sort of asthmatic wheezing and a rustling in the shrubbery. After a few seconds a hedgehog emerged and went snuffling around the terrace. then today when digging near the hedge I found an empty eggshell with a small hole in the side. I deduced that the hedgehog must have eaten it and the wheezing I heard was him sucking the insides out. But then when sweeping up I found the original egg which I had neglected to throw away!
I also heard foxes barking during the night.

• Where are these eggs coming from?

• Who sucked the egg, the hedgehog or a fox?

• Do hedgehogs suffer from asthma?

could you have left the keys in the lock and someone passing took a fancy the key ring?

I don't think so because I remember putting them on the counter, I went there to look for them to lock the door. Plus I think I would have seen anyone walking up to the door as I could see it from the car and I don't think anyone would have time to walk down the garden path and back without me seeing them. I may have put them down on a chair or the cat's scratching post but you'd think I would have found them by now. We've replaced the washing machine which is directly below where I recall putting them down and they weren't under the unit.

While I'm not woo, this thread is having me half-hoping that mum's agate ring turns up, it would really make her day.

When I was a student I received a red letter golf day addressed to me through the post. Nothing to imply where it came from, noone ever admitted it when I asked. V bizarre. It was worth £80 and I managed to persuade boots to give me a cash refund on it!

Also once went to put the rubbish out & opened the bin to find nothing inside except two giant dildos - given they would have been the last thing to be tipped into the truck no idea what the dustmen thought!

Erimentha, if you tell us a bit about the plot of the book, perhaps one of us might be able to help? There's got to be someone of here who's read it.

These are good, we should tell the Fortean Times!

I haven't shaved for 3 or 4 weeks but my left leg is quite hairy but my right has hardly any hairs and they are about half the length! Now it's possible I accidentally shaved the right one twice instead of doing both to explain the length but there's definitely less hairs too Armpit hair is similar both sides!

I mean it could be hormones or stress but why just one side?

I like the idea of Batman, just hanging out, serving beer

Barmen, not batman obviously!!

I worked in a pub in Kingston about 12 years ago, and one of the batman who lived upstairs had a snake, and had had it for years. He went home for the weekend and asked me to feed it.

I went up in the evening the feed it, and it wasn't in the tank. Lid securely fastened, no holes etc. I called another member of staff who was fairly brave and he came up to help, took the lid bit off, took every single thing out of the tank and then put it all back. No snake. And it wasn't small.

We never found it.

That pub is a zizi's now and I always think that one day some giant Amazonian beast is going to slither up the toilet and give someone a heart attack.

(Shudders)

Springy - he mentioned other bits to try & convince me, and they were all distinctly from the memory I had from weeks before. But, yes - every possibility it could've happened twice...

I love all the tales of things lost, then found in strange places. I am hoping lots of things I have lost from years back may suddenly turn up despite several moves & clear outs

I have two. The first was about 14 years ago, a friend and I were heading home and lost 40 minutes. It was on a short path through a wood near my house and i definitely checked my watch before we walked into the wood as it was getting close to my curfew, I checked my watch as we came out the other side (walk should have taken about 2 minutes max) yet 40 minutes had passed.

The second is a book I borrowed from a camp site library 11 ish years ago, I really enjoyed it and can remember the plot, cover everything (except the title or author's name) but despite searching and searching I can't find this book any information about it or anyone who has ever read it aside from me anywhere. It has slowly been driving me crazy, and its only the fact that remember my DN commenting on the cover and my DH remembers me reading and talking about it that makes me sure that I didn't make the imagine the whole thing.

cottonwoolmum Post in notes weren't around in the 70s.

Darkly, that is really sad and also rather lovely.

Fush.. Do you think you might have fallen into a pot twice? If it was on the route, it must be possible

Sort of a deja-vu one - but not like any deja-vu I have ever experienced before or since!

I worked at Butlins for a summer season and I will admit, drank too much and had a lot of fun with members of the opposite sex! One night, I was heading back to a friend's place for some fun and I distinctly remember falling into a big flower pot - it scraped the back of my legs and hurt quite a lot.

A few weeks later, I was with the same friend but had a little too much to drink and didn't really recall the stagger back to his place. We were talking about the night before and he said 'do you remember falling into that flower pot?' I said of course, but that was weeks ago but he was adamant it had been the night before and he wasn't as big a drinker as I was so kind of had to believe him.. ish!

BUT - I know it happened weeks before - I had scrapes on my legs for days!!

I understand that deja-vu can be explained by one side of your brain registering something moments before the other so it feels like there is a memory which doesn't truly exist... but from weeks before? With injuries?

I like to think there was a time-slip or something similar - but it freaked me out quite a bit at the time and did (sort of) make me take check of my drinking...

RavenRose haven't read all the thread, but think that you dad must have been made bankrupt. (It happened to my parents and we had to go from a big house etc to v small rented flat).

I don't know if records are kept of bankruptcy but it would be worth checking with the records office in the local area.

And it may not have been your parents who were to blame; my dad was ripped off by a very clever business "partner" who managed to take all the money out of their business, give it his wife and then divorce her, so my dad couldn't touch the money that was rightfully his. If I ever get my hands on that wanker ....

I'm just itching for someone to post about the Christmas card they received from Janet and Roy, with a detailed round Robin, but how it is a mystery because they don't know anyone called Janet and Roy

Re the flowers on graves, I may have a suggestion, although I'm aware it makes me sound a bit weird. A few years ago several members of my family died very close together and one, my BIL, in absolutely awful circumstances. None of them are buried very near to me and his grave in particular is just too painful to think about visiting. But sometimes I lay flowers on graves in the cemeteries where I live, especially if they are ones that don't look regularly visited or that are obviously very very old. It helps me to remember and think about the people I have lost in a slightyl less traumatic way and I like to think that the people whose graves they are would not mind. I hope so much that this doesn't upset any other visitors they may have though :(

I have a little mystery, only a little one though. About a year ago my Mum moved house, and got a new phone number, having had the old one for about thirty years. About three months after this, I got a new phone, and I input the contacts by hand (not by Bluetooth or anything fancy), so my new phone had never had my Mum's old number in it IYSWIM.

A few weeks ago I rang her, and got the "this number is not available" message. I tried again, same thing. When I looked, the phone said "Mum, Home number" but was dialling her old number, which it had never known. I definitely used the address book entry, I can't have accidentally hand dialled her old number as it wouldn't have associated this with her name. It finally rang the new number on the fourth attempt. It's never done it again, and have no idea how it happened.

Queen, she doesn't do it in the winter, it starts around March - she only operates on BST!

could you have left the keys in the lock and someone passing took a fancy the key ring?

Great thread, some fascinating stories. I remember 'flying' down the stairs when I was younger, too. It a very common phenomenon that a lot of people remember having done. There is a good explanation for it but I can't remember what it is!

I have a vanishing item mystery. I had a set of house keys with a distinctive keyring - it's a Discworld Ank Morpok postal route one my DP bought me when we were at The Cunning Artificer's in Wincanton. I came home with shopping one evening, opened the front door, went straight in to the kitchen with shopping and keys, put them both on the counter then went back out to my car to get something else then came back in and put the shopping away. That was two years or so ago and I've never seen the keys since. Back door was locked and my car was in sight of the house so I don't think anyone could have had time to go in the house and get them (kitchen at the back of the house). I must have had them to get in to the house but had to get the spares to lock the door again. Checked the pockets of the clothes I was wearing and not there. Where are my keys?

Re birds on the overhead cables: They're keeping their feet warm - more current running through that cable

Keeping their feet warm - more current running through that cable /emo/te/1.gif