Attention

“Quick, quick, come and see this!” Lady Mantle called out frantically.

His Lordship and myself dropped our croquet mallets and ran at full pelt towards her plaintive calls.

“Is it a newt?”  I asked

“No”

“A toad?”

“No”

What other exotic creature could be lurking in the flower bed?  A boomslang, an axolotl, a New Zealand flatworm?

Panting after our exertion, having run a full 10m without a pit stop, we demanded:

“What have you found that is so exciting we had to drop everything and rush to your side?”

“A really big worm”

Lord Mantle looked at me.  I looked at him.  We sighed in unison and walked away muttering “a worm” and “not even a very big one”.

As we retreated we could hear Her Ladyship exclaiming:

“Look! It’s as big as a snake, enormous, come back!”

Attention seeking again.  When will we learn?

There is no photo of the “enormous” worm.  I hope you aren’t disappointed.  Instead you have a picture of a canna seedpod, just ready to drop its contents to the ground.