N is for Nuts! Nutcrackers - Part Two; Nutty Kings

The reason Brian B's shelfies were so timely is that earlier that morning I had encountered a huge nutcracker outside the gun shop, and when I say "huge" I mean these guys must be six-foot if they are an inch!

This is he; Brazil Nut! The left hand photo' was taken a few days later after I had worked out what the hell was going on, in the meantime I continued into town and found . . .

. . . another one - Walnut - in the window of the little boutique opposite Boots. Well, the game was afoot Watson! Arriving at my destination to find a bunch of shelfies from Brian was the news that the Gods wanted nutcrackers on the Small Scale World this holiday season.

Now while I may be a dyed-in-the-wool twenty-ninth-day non-evental atheist, with leanings toward the one true lord; The Flying Spaghetti Monster, equally; I'm no fool, and if the Gods want, the Gods get.

By now I was digging a vague memory of a flyer coming through the door a few days earlier, from the depths of my pea-brain, and suspected I would find more, and that one was likely to be found in the main precinct, this one!

Cashew Nut also has all the equipment (to his left) necessary to enable younger nutcracker-hunters to temporarily turn themselves into nutcrackers - bargain! To its right is an identical one (apart from his name; Peanut) which was found in the Public Library the next day!

I then managed to walk past a forth yards from my destination, Macadamia being found at Gina G's ice-cream parlour, in a fetching orange, again second images were taken later. It was a few minutes after this I found the mail from Brian and replied 'Funnily enough I've just....'

I also found that my mate hadn't thrown his flyer in the recycling, so was able to get to the bottom of the whole caboodle, it was a Christmas hunt designed to drive custom into the town, organised by one of the local commercial bodies (Fleet BID), which sadly hasn't saved the sweet shop which will close this weekend I think.

It was also at this point I realised they had different names, and nuts at that, hence going back to some I'd already shot to make sure I had all the names.

I spent the next few days looking fruitlessly for the other five with no luck, but after a new flyer had been acquired (all previous flyers having mysteriously disappeared from both houses (the Gods may want this shit to happen but they don't make it easy for the acolyte!) and partially memorised, I found these two (Chestnut and Pecan) in the dark walking home at the end of last week (15th).

Chestnut and the earlier found Walnut have the joint distinctions of A) being reverse colour-ways of each other and B) not having a same colour twin, the other eight are four pairs of identical twins!

The following Monday got me close to the goal of all ten with Cobnut in the dance studio (I explained to the lady that I wasn't in the market for a pink tutu, but if ever I was; hers would be the emporium I would patronise for the apparel!), while Pine Nut was outside the surf-ski shop.

However . . . I had by this point tried every store in or near the place on the map (see below) where Number two was supposed to be and had asked several of them if they were hiding it, all to no avail, so being me, and on the God's work, fired-off a quick maile-electronique (the French add 'e' to everything!) missive to Fleet BID, muttering darkly about competitions that were impossible to complete and local government corruption, which resulting in a swift, happy reply from (Tracy Shrimpton) explaining that it was in the toy shop.

This Monday (18th) found me right down the back of the toy shop, ticking the last box - Hazelnut - but there's something cynical about placing it at the back of the shop; some of the others took a bit of finding but they were all nameable from the street, except the toy shop one.

And if you think I'm giving the toy shop a hard time for no reason, remember it's the same one that places a giant Playmobile figure outside, in the street, every day!

So the Gods hopefully appeased, the trail followed, the nutty kings found, if they follow this up with the same again next year, and with the Historical Society likely to do another toy exhibition, we seem to be laying down traditional Christmas posts here at Small Scale World, but then Christmas is all about tradition!