“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.