what is it? I'll give the answer in the morning.

Unripe acorns?

Was it that obvious? Apparently it was. I guess I'll give the answer now instead of in the morning.

What about this ?

honeycomb?

Shrimps legs (or whatever they're called

not a honeycomb .... CF is closer (I think ... shrimps got legs???)

Some sort of insect eggs?

Nope ... not insect related....

scales of some sort?
ie: fish, snake......

I thought the last one was Captain Kirk's sexmate for the day. hee hee...

warmer ... but not scales ...

Eggs?
Really looks like a corn cob. :D

Eggs is close enough ! ... egg case washed up on the beach which I photographed while over in Sanibel this last weekend. Looked on the web and see conflicting comments on what critter it is from however ... some say conch and some say whelk.

I thought those were horseshoe crab eggs. :mg:

Nope, definitely not Horseshoe crab.
Whelk and Crown Conch are similar, but......

In reality it looks more like the ducting in my central heating boiler (with which I have become unhappily familiar these last two days - at least the bloody thing is working again now!)