Mysterious mason gives head

My friend Karen Bailey has just sent me a link to a BBC news page about a very odd incident in Yorkshire.

In the small hours of the morning someone has been leaving big, heavy carved stone heads about (such as the one pictured). Why, nobody knows. Twelve of them have turned up so far, in villages as far as 50 miles apart. Three alone appeared overnight in Braithwell, South Yorkshire, where the mysterious giver of heads was caught on CCTV leaving one outside the post office. So far he remains unidentified.

As you can see from the photograph, these heads aren't throw-away items: they are solid lumps of rock, expertly carved. The only clue to the artist is a device on the verso of each which spells out the word 'paradox'. Each also bears the following line of doggerel: 'Twinkle, twinkle like a star, does love blaze less from afar?'

Reaction to the odd gifts has been varied. The couple who run the Braithwell post office seem to have been a bit creeped out, because they handed the CCTV footage over to the police. The licensee of the Foresters Arms Hotel, Kilburn, North Yorkshire, has given her head - which she found staring at her from the patio one morning - pride of place on the bar. She told reporters: 'We'd love to meet or find out who it is. Whoever it is is extremely talented.'

Maybe it's a publicity stunt. Once a buzz has been created about the heads - lo, they shall go on sale. But even that seems far-fetched. After all, time and skill has gone into making them and distributing 12 of the things is surely over the top if the intention is ultimately commercial. Perhaps it's some sort of weird situationist art project. Or someone is just having a lot of fun, doesn't need the money and is enjoying surprising people.

Good old British eccentricity, that's what it is, I reckon. It reminds me of that chap who turned up in Aberystwyth in Mid Wales (was it last year or the year before?) and suddenly started handing out great wads of cash before disappearing. Now that sort of eccentricity is worth encouraging!

To read more about the mysterious Yorkshire heads, follow this link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7022091.stm

(And don't forget my sister Blog, http://hauntedwales.blogspot.com