Today I learnt something new and useful.
The Elizabethan chest in the Screens Passage had an unsightly, white watermark on it, where a wicked, bad, naughty volunteer had stood a cup of hot tea, instead of using the coaster on the desk, a mere 6 inches distant.
"Do you think there's a way we can restore that?" I asked McColleague.
"Funnily enough, " she replied, excitedly, "I was watching a telly programme the other night about furniture restoration, and this woman said if you rub it with a Brazil nut it'll remove the watermark."
Well, if some woman on the telly said it'd work, that's good enough for me.
"OK," I said, "but I've only got hazelnuts."
"Ooh, I bet Lovely Warden will have some in his lunchbox!"
Lovely Warden is a vegetarian and brings lunches the squirrels would kill for.
Sure enough, he did have Brazil nuts in his box. "That's my favourite nut, too, " he said, wistfully, as he handed them over.
We gathered around the chest in great anticipation as McColleague set to work, rubbing the Brazil nut over the mark. Wow. I mean, seriously, wow. It really worked. The watermark had completely gone.
I began to laugh.
"What?"
"I'm sorry," I managed. "It's just that when people ask about this I'm going to have to say we got great results when we rubbed Lovely Warden's nuts on our chest."
And now I have, and I am happy.
