Locating The Lost.

Wednesday morning was 'Take Your Compost Bin to School' day,
as we were doing the Story of The Prodigal Son in Open the Book at a local school.

DH was the younger son.
In one scene he had six piglets as company.
To the children's disgust,
he picked up a banana skin
and briefly appeared to consider devouring it, before coming to his senses
and returning home to a delighted Father,
and not-so-delighted older bro.



As it was a sunny afternoon, DH wandered over to his nearby allotment to continue Operation Hedge Trimming along the boundary of his section, as it had almost reached the height of the lampost on the adjacent pathway.


I had been pottering, doing various chores, and had just settled down with a cup of coffee, when my phone rang.
"I've lost my glasses."
"When did you last have them?"
"I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know? "
"I have had them since I arrived on the allotment. 
They must have come off somewhere...
but I don't know when...
or where!"










I abandon my coffee and go round to the allotment.
On the way I check the ground, just in case he accidentally dropped them on the way.
Alas, no sign of the glasses.

Upon arriving at the allotment I cast my eyes over the significant length of hedgerow,
with freshly trimmed branches woven into it.
My heart sinks.

We look in the sheds,
the polytunnel,
the flower pots.
We check the flower beds.
No sign of the glasses.

I look again at the hedging and begrudgingly accept the fact that the glasses are in there.
Somewhere.

I think longingly of my coffee.
I look up and down the hedgerow
"It is a pity I didn't bring any gloves..."
DH finds me a pair of gloves.
We take up starting positions at opposite ends of the hedge and begin to search.

I start by removing armfuls of cuttings,
getting attacked by the disgruntled branches, outraged at being disturbed.
"This is like searching for a needle in a haystack 
and has about as much chance of success!" 
I grumble to myself.
All I am doing is undoing DH's good work.
I need a different strategy

I pray
and move a couple of feet along the hedgerow.

This time I do not move anything.
I just stare intently at the mesh of slender interlocking twigs.
As I focus, I suddenly notice something unexpected
"Want a pair of glasses?" 
I ask my husband
DH immediately stops searching and turns and looks at me.
"You mean you have found them?" 
he asks incredulously.
"Well, I have found a pair of glasses.
I assume they are yours..."
I take a photo for posterity before he has the chance to retrieve them.
DH picks them up his errant glasses,
gives them a polish
and puts them back on
before they can go missing again.
Meanwhile, I am just wondering how he didn't know they had fallen off
the very moment he lost them.

We rebuild the hedge and go home.
As a reward for finding the glasses, DH made me a fresh cup of coffee.
A lost son, and a lost pair of glasses.
What next, I wondered?