IT HAPPENED TO ME...

First-hand accounts from FT readers and browsers of www.forteantimes.com

Flying dandy

One summer evening about four years ago, I was attempting to photograph bats on Milton Common, Portsmouth. Their rapid flight made this difficult, but I thought if I click away at random I might have some success. The fact that I was using a basic Kodak Easy Share C653 digital camera didn’t help much. However, I did get one or two half-decent (if grainy) pictures showing bats illuminated by the camera flash. On reviewing the photographs on the camera later, I noticed I had captured several flying insects – probably moths or caddis flies or the like. This one [shown at right] caught my attention, as it looked distinctly un-insect-like. On enlarging the image, it appeared to show a diminutive winged figure wearing 18th century costume and sporting a wig with a ponytail! It also appears to be wearing a pair of natty (or should that be gnatty?) boots. Nick Maloret Milton, Hampshire

Galway fairy

I am only 10 but I like reading your magazines when my daddy gets them because they are so interesting. The other day I saw what I am sure is a fairy. It had white wings that whirred really fast. I couldn’t see any arms but it had legs with what seemed to be feet and a seemingly orangefaced head. It flew in circles then set off over my head. It then hovered over an apple tree before disappearing suddenly. This happened at dusk at about half past ten. Leela A Kingsnorth Tynagh, Co Galway, Ireland

Lucky tiger

Reading the article about the tiger in Siberia [ FT367:12] prompted me to relate the following. During the night of 12 April 2018 I had a very short dream in which someone called me to my front door. I opened my flat door into a small communal hallway to be confronted by a large tiger, which roared and jumped at me. It hit me with such a force I fell back and rolled several times back into my hallway. I immediately woke up, realised I had been dreaming and soon fell asleep again. The next day, my son rang and asked if I would like to put a bet on the Grand National due to be run the next day, 14 April, at Aintree. I never normally bet, having lost on several occasions, but decided to have a look at the runners. One of the horses was called Tiger Roll, ridden by Davy Jones. I rang my son and asked him to put my stake on the horse. Tiger Roll came in first and I won £98! Tony Davenport Wirral Peninsula

Premature return

I believe my father may have had an example similar to the concept of the Vardogr in Norwegian lore. Back in the 1950s when he was a teenager, his parents would always go out to the local club in Stockport for midweek bingo and a few drinks. This was a well-established, regular routine (which may be relevant for this phenomenon). My father was in the bathroom, brushing his teeth at the sink and preparing to go to bed. Looking in the mirror, he could quite clearly see his parents standing in the bathroom doorway, smiling at him but saying nothing, with my grandfather’s arm around my grandmother’s shoulders. He thought it a little odd, as they were back much earlier than usual, but finished up in the bathroom before going downstairs to speak with them. When he realised that in fact his parents were not there, he got pretty spooked! They did of course return for real later on – I don’t know the time that had elapsed from the mirror sighting – and he was able to verify that they had not popped back earlier. Duncan Kaiser By email

Cap vanishes

Quite recently, I tried to unscrew a metal twist cap from a wine bottle, but it wouldn’t budge. My next resort was to use a washcloth as a “soft wrench” for better purchase and leverage, which often works. But this time nothing happened, meaning that running hot water over the cap to expand it was the only remaining option. But before doing that and while continuing to try turning the cap, there was suddenly liquid running over my hand and onto the floor. Removing my hand and the cloth, the bottle was now completely open though not much had spilled. Yet the cap was gone. It was not in the cloth, nor on the floor, nor in the space under the edge of fixtures – the kitchen stove and the sink cabinet on either side of where it would have to have fallen. Under each fixture, that space does not go back very far, so that was easy to check. Moreover, my ears are sharp enough to have heard this object fall on the hard linoleum floor. So the cap’s disappearance is as hard to understand as it would be for many people, including myself, to believe that the cause was paranormal. Richard Porter Denver, Colorado.

Exeter ABC

Around noon sometime in late May or June 2011, I was on the M5 on the outskirts of Exeter, travelling by coach to Bristol. I looked out of the window to my left and saw, about 500ft (150m) away, a massive cat standing completely still in a field, close to a large tree. It was brown, roughly the height of an Alsatian dog but somewhat longer, with a tail almost as long as the body. The head was round with rounded ears. I had it in view for around 10 seconds. I am a former zookeeper and am familiar with big cats. The animal appeared to be an adult puma. No one else seemed to notice it. Richard Freeman Zoological Director, Centre for Fortean Zoology, Exeter