Flossie and I make unusual discoveries

Flossie and I sometimes stumble across unexpected items on our walks.

Flossie’s idea of a good find is not the same as mine.

The other week, she dived into a bush outside the doctors’ surgery. She reappeared triumphantly with a whole slice of bread dangling from her mouth. Just as I had wrestled her prize from her, one of my neighbours walked out of the surgery. He is not someone I know well so I found myself greeting him with an unexplained slice of farmhouse loaf in my hand. 

We had an extensive conversation about neighbourhood matters which did not include the wayward scattering of breakfast fare. Eventually, Flossie and I went on our way. I was a little concerned I could become known as ‘the woman who carries a slice of bread around’ as I clutched the bread for some distance until, at last, we found a bin. 

I’m sure Flossie thought it would have been much easier if I’d just let her eat the bread in the first place. 

She may have a point.

Once, we found some broken scissors outside the local school. I didn’t think there was anything alarming about this but thought I should remove them from the road. So, I scooped them up into an empty poo bag and wrapped the bag carefully around them to provide a cushion. 

I wondered if this would be sufficient. 

Flossie, keen to be helpful, obligingly did her business nearby and I gathered that up too, in a separate bag. Just to be absolutely sure that nobody would try to gain access to the scissors (I’m not sure how they would, as they were already wrapped in a bag), I put the bag containing the broken scissors into the bag containing Flossie’s business and tied the outer bag securely. I then dropped the whole package into the bin.

While our two discoveries were quite different, they both ended up in the same place.

And there was no way anyone was going to retrieve those broken scissors.   

As published in the Bath Chronicle, 22 October 2026