Thank You St. Anthony

Weaver Bird Nests, Gahini

 

Walking down the hill from Gahini to Seeds of Peace with Alicia and Cathryn at the weekend, I was complaining about my keys disappearing. Cathryn was mystified by a bottle of shampoo that had also vanished. She suggested appealing to the powers that be. I suggested Ganesh, the remover of obstacles. She said “No, St. Anthony – it never fails.” “What, even if you’re a raging heathen?” I asked, somewhat sceptically.

“Don’t ask me why, it just always works.”

So, slightly jokingly, slightly self-conscious, I made a halfhearted appeal to St. Anthony to find my keys. She did the same for her shampoo.

Jo had left my spare key in the back garden, so I didn’t have any trouble getting in when I got home. I was still a bit annoyed about the keyrings that were lost with them. One was a holographic spider keyring from the Cobweb Inn, Boscastle, Cornwall. I used to spend a lot of time at the Witchcraft Museum there as a kid. The other was a metal imprint of Cernunnos, an ancient Celtic god.

Back at the guesthouse, I’d taken my entire rucksack apart twice and checked under every inch of the bed – nada.

This morning, when I emptied my laundry into a pile for washing, I heard a tinkle. I’d shaken the bag before, to see whether I could hear the keys. How amazed was I when I discovered them at the bottom of a side pocket!?

I texted Cathryn just to say: You were right, St. Anthony never fails.

She replied: I know, I just found my shampoo at the bottom of my bag.

So, St. Anthony, mate, you’re a gent.