Something strange is happening in my bedroom and I can’t work out why!

[Wendyer]

I’m sorry, it’s not very exciting but I just don’t understand it.

I have a bedside cabinet, and about 6 weeks ago I noticed that there was some gritty rubbley type stuff on it. I wiped it away but later on there was more there. I thought I mustn’t have cleared it up properly so did it again, more thoroughly.

And basically, ever since, there’s nearly always this gritty stuff there! I can’t imagine where it’s coming from - there’s nothing above the cabinet except the ceiling and a hanging light but they don’t seem to be the source. I never hear it dropping onto the cabinet, or see it dropping, it’s just there!

Where is it coming from?!

Lath not lathe

Is it myrrh ? I have a small jar of it here and it does look like it. The three kings coming early ?

Shamelessly placemarking.

OP’s son reminds me of Adam Rickett (ex Nick Tilsley)

Call ghostbusters👻

Can you get into the loft above it to check there? Are you by the coast? I know someone who had a ceiling collapse after years worth of sand blown in was eventually heavy enough to cause it. They had no idea the sand was up there until it fell in!

Has anyone else considered putting ‘clean out ceiling roses’ on some non-existent annual list somewhere and then pulled yourself together !?

@SoupDragon then they are wrong, or it’s fallen in to new parlance, but this is a proper ceiling rose.

www.creative-cables.co.uk/2648-ceiling-roses

Common parlance now

@HeronLanyon

At the ready to swap my occasional (and sometimes thrilling) ‘Serengeti watering hole’ web cam viewing for ‘grit falling onto op’s bedside table’ web cam. What a time to be alive !!!

We are all living life on the edge on this thread.;)

@sashh 'Spiders don't have blood'

I am staggered by this fact; I had no idea. I'll be reading up on how this works later.

This is the thread that just keeps on giving!

I feel like we need a ceiling rose thread.

@WomblingKnobhead

www.creative-cables.co.uk/2648-ceiling-roses

Common parlance now

Yes, I think the "bit that covers the ugly hole in the ceiling and the wires" has changed from a lovely piece of decorative plaster to a plastic cup and is still called a ceiling Rose. Rather like how cars no longer look like chitty chitty bang bang.

In modern British wiring setups, light fittings usually use loop-in ceiling roses, which also include the functionality of a junction box.

@WomblingKnobhead

www.creative-cables.co.uk/2648-ceiling-roses

Common parlance now

Always has been.

They aren't decorative, but they are ceiling roses.

@JollyJoon

The cross

I can also see a crab

I definitely think this is something from the other side communicating in a kind of ectoplasm with symbols: a cross, a crab and I bet there are others. I feel we might be moving towards a solution here.

I had missed the poster who has also spotted a dragonfly and a deformed gingerbread person....... knocks my theory of it all being things starting with C though.

Hmmm things rain from the ceiling in our house.

Solved one by cellotaping a piece of paper over a light fitting.

The other didn't go so well. Suddenly the whole ceiling collapsed and the room filled with wasps. Argh. Grabbed small child, left room and shut door behind us.

@LuluBlakey1

I had missed the poster who has also spotted a dragonfly and a deformed gingerbread person....... knocks my theory of it all being things starting with C though.

Did I say dragonfly and gingerbread man! I meant Caliaeschna and Cookie Monster. Obviously.

I think it's falling through the small hole 🕳 in the light fitting attached directly to the ceiling then dispersing as it falls then hits the table / paper

I love mumsnet. I knew there would be an expert witness along soon. Insects, historic buildings, light fittings. 😀

I definitely think its ants

trixie I have very similar roses. What struck me looking at yours and then mine was that if others are right about it, more traditional roses have a rose within a rose. I think we may need Gertrude Stein !

That is a LOT of grit! Tonight, lay the paper trap and sit and watch!!

I’m staggered by so many helpful suggestions - thank you!

I’m also very embarrassed to tell you that, thanks to the clever folk of mn, the mystery is solved. I want to give you all an amazing and unique denouement but the truth is - it’s coming from the reading lamp base! It looks intact but I banged it down hard a few times, and there it was, lots of grit. I never would’ve thought of that lamp as being the source so thank you.

I’m happy to report that my friend didn’t fall down a whole flight of stairs, she tripped over some Xmas decorations and only slid down a couple of steps.

@PopUpShop

I wish I’d had the bank robber style tights idea when I prised off a piece of plasterboard to to have a desiccated mouse POUF out into my face. It was like a dandelion clock of tiny tufts of mouse fur. In the back of my throat. LISTEN TO AMERICAN TAN TIGHTS LADY!

Did you make a wish when the dried bits of dead mouse fur floated away/got inhaled?

@LuluBlakey1 d’ya think that mummy spider will weave a written message to you like Charlotte’s Web? I do hope so.