Newt sensations

Given all the things he’s lost in his garden, Toby is pleased to discover something as precious as his new pond visitor

- TOBY BUCKLAND

I’VE lost many valuable things in my garden, including a phone, the keys (thankfully found), my wedding ring and – more recently – my watch.

The ring was the most valuable, and fell from my finger 20 years ago, so unless it miraculously falls from the beak of a passing magpie, there’s little hope of getting it back.

The watch, on the other hand (or make that wrist), has been absent for a comparative blink of an eye. It was only a year ago that I put it ‘somewhere safe’ while I gardened. If I could only remember where I was working, I’m sure it would still be there.

The one place I haven’t looked, until now, is our pond. The time frame works, as it’s in summer that I thin any plants that threaten to choke the water. And being a diver’s chronometer, it may even have survived where so many mobsters haven’t – swimming with the fishes.