Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

[Scribbles]

Tonight, less than half an hour ago, I heard a sort of creaking sound to the right of me. I turned to see the dog's brown & green resin ball roll into view (see in picture, under little table) from the right. It then wobbled to a stop.

Absolutely no explanation as to how it gathered any momentum to move from its position. Absolutely meaningless but pleasing little happening!

 

[Scribbles]

01.40 pm. I was browsing on here when I heard a sound in the kitchen downstairs. It sounded like the clink of bottles. Nothing too surprising, since mice have been a recurring problem.

Investigating, I found a yellow pencil on the lino in a place it had not been earlier. Dropping it a few times confirmed that this could well have been the sound. I could not, however, work out how it had got there. Some papers and a pen were on the far side of the dining table; there could have been a pencil with them but it would have taken a mysterious leap to land by the bin!

A mouse could have dislodged it from the work-top above, though I do not think there was a pencil there!

Anyway, the mouse that has annoyed me for the last couple of weeks bit the dust just after seven this morning!

Maybe his ghost?

Lol!

I had a similar experience as a 16/17 year old once. I was in the living room. Heard a rattling/clattering come from behind the armchair. Was a little scared as it was evening and I was in the house on my own. Went and looked behind the armchair. Saw there on the floor the long, red, plastic cocktail spoon that sat in the tacky 1970s cocktail-making beaker on the shelf behind the chair. Was even more scared because what on earth could cause a long spoon to jump out of a long beaker and onto the floor?

I know I was 16/17 because this event happened not long after I'd held a ouija board session at my house, something me and my friends went through a phase of doing at various locations when in the lower sixth form. Guess which cup we had used to move around the board....

That pencil wasn't used for anything spooky, was it?

 

[JamesWhitehead]

That pencil wasn't used for anything spooky, was it?

The mystery is still about where the pencil was. I remembered that the washer had been on, so it's highly-likely it was dislodged by vibration, though it was not doing that at the moment it fell!

 

[Mythopoeika]

The mystery is still about where the pencil was. I remembered that the washer had been on, so its highly-likely it was dislodged by vibration, though it was not doing that at the moment it fell!

Dislodged by mice.

 

[Coal]

Dislodged by mice.

Little furry gits.

 

[Kate In The Desert]

Yesterday the sound of something upstairs crashing to the floor. It took me a while to identify the culprit.. a framed picture (nothing personal) on my own bedroom wall had fallen down the back of the radiator.

The minor strangeness is that the hook/nail on the wall remained in place, seemingly not dislodged or bent, and the hoop thing on the back of the picture was equally sturdy and intact. Nor was it a case - seemingly - of something precariously balanced having finally reached a tipping point of too many micro vibrations.. the picture has been there and largely untouched for at least a year.

I say it wasn't a pic of any personal relevance so as to not invite the finger of suspicion at any ghostly culprits. However maybe its worth mentioning its an artified depiction of a scene from The Invisible Man...
View attachment 13208

Your picture hints at interesting decor at your house!

 

[PeteS]

Currently reading 16.00 24/11/2018.

Time now running backwards very slowly. Now reads 15.57 24/11/2018!

 

[Roger Nowell]

Here's one for minor strangeness (not being worthy of it's own thread):-

One evening in the middle of the last decade I was walking home from a girlfriend's house. It was a mild, still summer night. I had just reached the end of my (then) street. It's a fairly leafy avenue not far from the sea.

At this point I had better reiterate that it was a still night. All of a sudden, the tree that I was passing beneath began thrashing as if in a gale. I thought that a storm had come, out of nowhere, so I immediately started running (being just 500 yards from home and just about capable of running).

Within several yards I realised that there was no storm, wind, or anything. The tree behind me was as motionless as everything else. Incidentally, the weather continued fair for the remainder of the night.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Time now running backwards very slowly. Now reads 15.57 24/11/2018!

Counting down? Is there a flashing red light?


It could be a bomb.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Here's one for minor strangeness (not being worthy of it's own thread):-

One evening in the middle of the last decade I was walking home from a girlfriend's house. It was a mild, still summer night. I had just reached the end of my (then) street. It's a fairly leafy avenue not far from the sea.

At this point I had better reiterate that it was a still night. All of a sudden, the tree that I was passing beneath began thrashing as if in a gale. I thought that a storm had come, out of nowhere, so I immediately started running (being just 500 yards from home and just about capable of running).

Within several yards I realised that there was no storm, wind, or anything. The tree behind me was as motionless as everything else. Incidentally, the weather continued fair for the remainder of the night.

Something up in the tree moving about?

 

[Roger Nowell]

far too much thrashing of all the branches

 

[Naughty_Felid]

Here's one for minor strangeness (not being worthy of it's own thread):-

One evening in the middle of the last decade I was walking home from a girlfriend's house. It was a mild, still summer night. I had just reached the end of my (then) street. It's a fairly leafy avenue not far from the sea.

At this point I had better reiterate that it was a still night. All of a sudden, the tree that I was passing beneath began thrashing as if in a gale. I thought that a storm had come, out of nowhere, so I immediately started running (being just 500 yards from home and just about capable of running).

Within several yards I realised that there was no storm, wind, or anything. The tree behind me was as motionless as everything else. Incidentally, the weather continued fair for the remainder of the night.

Whereabouts were you? What type or tree was it? More details please.

 

[Kate In The Desert]

far too much thrashing of all the branches

There's one thing that came to mind immediately when I read your original post. It's something I experienced 20 years ago. And it caused two trees to shake the way yours did.

In short, it was a gigantic squirrel convention. There were hundreds, possibly thousands of squirrels perching on all the branches of one tree. I was seated on a chair on the outside front porch of the house I lived in then, and my first clue that something unusual was going on was the sound of the thrashing of branches in a large, old (but healthy) tree diagonally situated across the street to the right of me. The leaves prevented me from seeing the squirrels. But the tree seemed to be alive with...something! Scared the bejeebers out of me.

However, that was nothing compared with what happened next. All the hundreds (thousands?!?) of grey squirrels decided suddenly to leave their perches, race down the tree and across the street to the huge tree in the front yard of the house immediately to the left of me. The sight of the hordes of them running speedily in a direction quite close to me made me stand up quickly and go back into the house. (Yes, I admit it. I was frightened of squirrels.) I stood at the screen door, watching the spectacle. The hundreds (thousands? yikes!) of squirrels had simply chosen, as one unit, to climb the tree at the house on the left. They immediately created a new thrashing effect in the branches of that tree as well.

I found this so creepy, I went to a set of books on a nearby shelf, a three-volume set of the "Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom" which was quite old, having belonged to my parents. I quickly found the entry on squirrels. To my amazement, there was a paragraph concerning some squirrel behaviour that scientists had not yet understood, namely, the very rare, but nonetheless observed amassing and migration of hundreds (and yes, it said even THOUSANDS!) of squirrels from place to place, just travelling from one town to the next. The book said that these huge groups of squirrels acted contrary to their normal behaviour, which was nowhere near so obviously SOCIAL.

So maybe what you noticed was a swarm of squirrels shaking the tree limbs. Especially if it happened at night. I couldn't see them at first even in broad daylight. Just the spooky shaking and violent thrashing about of tree branches.

Nutty but true.

What do you think?

Kathleen

 

[Roger Nowell]

Hi.

I would love to see a squrrel convention; you see the odd pair of grey squirrels round here but that is about all. What a great sight that would be.

In a built up area of an East Yorkshire coastal town the only thing you get in quantity are seagulls and pigeons. Never in sufficient numbers on a tree, only on roofs. Besides which they are both audible and visible.

I once saw starlings before dusk; a great sight but very visible.

I can't think that it was any creature as none fit the bill. I don't know enough about trees to tell you the type; other than desciduous (sp?) and common for these parts. A wannabe Whomping Willow?

 

[PeteS]

Counting down? Is there a flashing red light?


It could be a bomb.

It's not gone off yet, but I open the laptop very gingerly.

 

[Coal]

I would love to see a squrrel convention;

You'd love it, they're nuts.

 

[plastic wiganer]

Yesterday afternoon I

come on, spill the beans....... what did you do? we're all friends here...it will go no further.. lol

 

[Kate In The Desert]

Hi.

I would love to see a squrrel convention; you see the odd pair of grey squirrels round here but that is about all. What a great sight that would be.

In a built up area of an East Yorkshire coastal town the only thing you get in quantity are seagulls and pigeons. Never in sufficient numbers on a tree, only on roofs. Besides which they are both audible and visible.

I once saw starlings before dusk; a great sight but very visible.

I can't think that it was any creature as none fit the bill. I don't know enough about trees to tell you the type; other than desciduous (sp?) and common for these parts. A wannabe Whomping Willow?

Your experience is a true Fortean mystery!

As far as wanting to see a squirrel convention, I wouldn't have minded so much if I had seen it from a greater distance! When hundreds (eek! thousands!) of grey squirrels seeming to be one single, monstrous, writhing creature go running past you at a mere 25 foot distance, it tends to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up...

 

[markrkingston1]

As far as wanting to see a squirrel convention, I wouldn't have minded so much if I had seen it from a greater distance! When hundreds (eek! thousands!) of grey squirrels seeming to be one single, monstrous, writhing creature go running past you at a mere 25 foot distance, it tends to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up...

There's a horror movie in there: 'Attack of the Killer Squirrels'.... the story of how squirrels turn bad and become pack-hunting carnivores after sunspots/genetic meddling/virus/pick your disaster mutates them.

 

[Kate In The Desert]

There's a horror movie in there: 'Attack of the Killer Squirrels'.... the story of how squirrels turn bad and become pack-hunting carnivores after sunspots/genetic meddling/virus/pick your disaster mutates them.

LOL!! That's precisely the scenario that ran through my mind and propelled me from the porch chair to the inside of the house posthaste, MarkR!

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

come on, spill the beans....... what did you do? we're all friends here...it will go no further.. lol

Um... I've no idea what happened there, but if I recall correctly I was trying to post about an odd sound/sensation which occurred. So let's try again...

That afternoon (the day before my aborted post) I was sitting at home, Mr Zebra had taken the dogs for a walk. There was a loud thud/boom sort of sound, but most importantly though it was accompanied by a distinct, but very brief, feeling underfoot. If you've ever lived in a semi-detached house of dubious construction (think 60s/70s council houses here in the UK or - very probably - modern housing) then you'll know of the effect of a door being slammed and the slight feeling of shaking of floorboards which accompanies it.

It felt exactly like that. Except; we live in a detached house, and its construction most certainly does not lend itself to shaking.

But that's what I felt. In fact, that's what immediately came to mind (in that very quick way that one's brain provides a solution) before I realised that logically it could not have been that.

When Mr Zebra returned from his walk I told him about it; curiously he had also heard the sound but had not felt any shaking underfoot. He could not (and still can't; I've just asked him) define either what sort of sound it was, or what direction it had come from. But heard it he had; while in the park not too far away from our house (and therefore standing on grass - in case that makes any difference to the lack of shaking on his part).

So; that's it - not particularly exciting I know, but it remains an odd mystery. Not the sound itself per se; as there can be many explanations for odd sounds (although neither of us know what it was to this day, and have not heard it since) - but mainly why on earth I felt it underfoot as I sat at home remains quite bizarre.

I shall note that nothing shook or otherwise moved during the brief moment that I felt and heard the sound, and we do not live in an earthquake zone as far as I know

Thoughts and/or similar experiences greatly received...

 

[Austin Popper]

Not if they are trying to leave a parcel for neighbours which happens frequently.

Ah, I see. That rarely happens here, if at all. We do get other people's mail by accident now and again, but such a friendly and neighborly system as you have is too sensible for Murricans, or something.

 

[uair01]

Last weekend we visited Kleve once again. It's just over the border and I know it well. But it's always full of surprises. It's like a second home. It's Lovecraftian, just like Dordrecht. And it's an artificial landscape theatre (really). And the birthplace of Joseph Beuys. What's that strange spherical thing on the roof?



Walking home from PrintRoom (Karin de Jong) I saw this mysterious ritual under the NAI institute. Probably just making an art or fashion clip … I seemed to be the only one who noticed.

 

[markrkingston1]

That afternoon (the day before my aborted post) I was sitting at home, Mr Zebra had taken the dogs for a walk. There was a loud thud/boom sort of sound, but most importantly though it was accompanied by a distinct, but very brief, feeling underfoot.
[...]
I shall note that nothing shook or otherwise moved during the brief moment that I felt and heard the sound, and we do not live in an earthquake zone as far as I know

This sort of thing intrigues me. There are really many things this could be, from what I can tell.

Possibilities include:

(a) Something very heavy being dropped (e.g. large piece of metal, concrete, scrap materials, etc). This kind of event can create a low frequency sound and vibration that can travel for a long way (mile, maybe more). In effect it's a very small earthquake.

(b) Sonic boom. Yeah, it's an old standby but a sonic boom can nevertheless create effects of the sort you describe.

(c) Distant bomb explosion. Unlikely but plausible. I've experienced this myself on two occasions within hours of each other in my home in Cricklewood, north west London, in 1992. The first one was in the evening and was the Baltic Exchange bomb[1]. At the moment that the shock wave reached me, I was actually in the bath with my head under water(!). I heard an extraordinarily deep rumble and felt a vibration; the two things were one and the same, really. The second one was later that night and was the Staples Corner bomb[2]. I was long out of the bath by then and I heard another deep rumble and a very slight vibration.

(d) A small earthquake. What you describe sounds very much like a small earthquake, to me. You say you don't live in an earthquake zone but everywhere is an earthquake zone. There's nowhere where small earthquakes don't occur. What is your location? It may be possible to determine if an earthquake is recorded as occurring near you at the time.



Footnotes:-
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Exchange_bombing
2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Staples_Corner_bombing

 

[Ermintruder]

Walking home from PrintRoom (Karin de Jong) I saw this mysterious ritual under the NAI institute

Does the person (or mannequin?) not appear to be floating (or suspended) above the street pavement?

Does this second 'person' appear to be standing upon a light which seems to be coming from below (therefore, not shining from above) and also fail to be actually illuminated themselves by that lighr?

This is a very strange picture.

Please tell us more about it (no matter how unconventional Rotterdam is)

 

[Naughty_Felid]

Um... I've no idea what happened there, but if I recall correctly I was trying to post about an odd sound/sensation which occurred. So let's try again...

That afternoon (the day before my aborted post) I was sitting at home, Mr Zebra had taken the dogs for a walk. There was a loud thud/boom sort of sound, but most importantly though it was accompanied by a distinct, but very brief, feeling underfoot. If you've ever lived in a semi-detached house of dubious construction (think 60s/70s council houses here in the UK or - very probably - modern housing) then you'll know of the effect of a door being slammed and the slight feeling of shaking of floorboards which accompanies it.

It felt exactly like that. Except; we live in a detached house, and its construction most certainly does not lend itself to shaking.

But that's what I felt. In fact, that's what immediately came to mind (in that very quick way that one's brain provides a solution) before I realised that logically it could not have been that.

When Mr Zebra returned from his walk I told him about it; curiously he had also heard the sound but had not felt any shaking underfoot. He could not (and still can't; I've just asked him) define either what sort of sound it was, or what direction it had come from. But heard it he had; while in the park not too far away from our house (and therefore standing on grass - in case that makes any difference to the lack of shaking on his part).

So; that's it - not particularly exciting I know, but it remains an odd mystery. Not the sound itself per se; as there can be many explanations for odd sounds (although neither of us know what it was to this day, and have not heard it since) - but mainly why on earth I felt it underfoot as I sat at home remains quite bizarre.

I shall note that nothing shook or otherwise moved during the brief moment that I felt and heard the sound, and we do not live in an earthquake zone as far as I know

Thoughts and/or similar experiences greatly received...

Some earthquakes are preceded by bang and booms - or so it's thought. I heard one in NZ that sounded like a truck had hit the house it was then followed immediately, by a fairly big quake, (house shook, stuff rattled, etc). Saying that you don't always need a big quake to hear a noise.

https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-are-...s_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products

I can't get on to the BGS site but I'm assuming there was nothing as I've not seem anything in the press. I would imagine it's fracking then.

 

[markrkingston1]

I can't get on to the BGS site but I'm assuming there was nothing as I've not seem anything in the press. I would imagine it's fracking then.

From what I can gather, very small earthquakes (that only a few people may have felt) just don't get into the press, not even in the UK. Local earthquakes for local people!

 

[Naughty_Felid]

From what I can gather, very small earthquakes (that only a few people may have felt) just don't get into the press, not even in the UK. Local earthquakes for local people!

You normally see it somewhere on the BBC or Rynnner reports it, Oh wait....

 

[markrkingston1]

You normally see it somewhere on the BBC

Sometimes, yes, but my impression (admittedly without any systematically collected evidence) is that there are some/many very small earthquakes that may be felt or even just heard by people in a very localised area that just don't get any national (or even local) media publicity.

Absence of BBC coverage is not evidence of absence, one might say.

or Rynnner reports it, Oh wait....

Is Rynner still with us?

 

[Coal]

Sometimes, yes, but my impression (admittedly without any systematically collected evidence) is that there are some/many very small earthquakes that may be felt or even just heard by people in a very localised area that just don't get any national (or even local) media publicity.

I agree, I've felt faint tremors on a few occasions (stop it), but there was no 'official' quake.

Absence of BBC coverage is not evidence of absence, one might say.

You can say that again.