Yes, they are chestnuts...

Now as some of you will have figured out I am afraid of spiders. Really afraid; I do believe they are True Evil and will get me in a bad way one day. They're just waiting for their chance.

So to mitigate any chances they might have I decided to get some horse chestnuts and place them in a barrier around the house. A friend gave me some, and the others I spotted over by Alexander Park in Hastings. When I picked them up I was amazed to find that there were three to five nuts in each casing. So amazed I kept some casings intact and intended to talk to someone about my findings. Of course I'd heard on Countryfile that our natural chestnut trees had some serious diseases and presume it was all connected.

Now, of course I can imagine you've realised my error...but I did place the chestnuts in a ring of protection around my house and yes, no spiders at all (well bar one tiny one) since I did that. So of course last week, I had a friend who is known for her no nonsense attitude over last week and she spied a bag of chestnuts I'd bought from a supermarket in my fruit bowl and asked why I hadn't just headed over to the park and picked some up for free. Cue much hilarity and a shocker of a realisation that I hadn't actually discovered an interesting new variety of horse chestnuts in the park.

So today, I decided to cook the supermarket bag of chestnuts; in the oven; then warm them up over the evening on the wood burner. They were great, although of course not as fab as ones bought on the street from 'proper' sellers with grubby blackened fingers. But...I've done it again.

I realised whilst eating one that I'd burnt a bit of it and had a hard bit in my mouth. Which I just swallowed. To be sharply followed by the realisation that I'd also eaten a bit of my back tooth, with the yummy chestnut of course. The filling broke on my tooth, and the edge of my tooth had disappeared.

I'm very embarrassed to go back to the dentist and confess my error, and to pay again for treatment. My poor dentist knows me now, and will, for sure want an explanation.