A flat stone, from a nearby beach, now sits at the base of a small water-fall that tumbles into a fish pond where three fat goldfish idly swim, their mouths open in readiness to eat some drowning insect while, like solid, brown curls, water snails float on the surface.

Imprinted on that flat stone, large fossil talons, splayed out in readiness to grab a passing fish, are frozen in time, but their ponderous intent still shimmers.

Beside the pond, Buddha reclines wearing an ivy toga to conceal his plumpness, but those ivy suckers resist the temptation to scramble over his laughing face that peers upwards to look through the boughs of a pear tree.

A light breeze stirs and scatters a white petal path that leads to the stone bird bath where a blackbird splashes, and perched on a damson branch, close by, it’s mate waits for her chance to preen and clean feathers.

Below the bird bath, a tortoise extends his reptilian head catching dappled sunlight that warms his neck and hard shell; an oiled shell that protects his fragile body.

Then a woodlouse ambles past and his wide mouth extends to devour this tiny creature that once, eons ago, emerged from the sea abandoning his crustacean family.