Pondside

I got back to the Mansion at about 8:30pm, and decided, as you do, to go for a quick walk around the Grinds. Well, as it’s bucketing down with hollow hail – which makes a strange tinkling sound as it hits anything metal, and doesn’t hurt anywhere near as much as the solid hail does – and it’s cold enough to freeze mercury, the conditions are nigh on perfect.

First things first. The hollow hail sounds much softer when it falls on wet grass, but it can still pack a sharp sting if it gets whipped up, and hurled directly into the face by a sudden blast of arctic cold wind. Luckily, I had my balaclava on, so the only things that got stung were my eyes. And, they were already stinging from being sleepy, as luck would have it, so it didn’t really matter.

It may have been the sleepiness, but it may not have been at the same time, that I saw what I saw next.

Down by the pond, in the furthest corner of the Grinds, far away from the Mansion that you could go before being almost outside of the ‘estate’ was a creature I’ve only ever seen before in books.

So rare, it’s actually thought extinct. And there one was, by the pond. Actually standing on the Rockery by the pond.

According to the books, it should really have been under water, with only its head visible, and the occasional flipper or tail making an appearance every now and again.

It was a plesiosaur.

That’s right; there’s a mini Loch Ness Monster living in my Grinds.

It’s about my size, height-wise to its shoulders, but it has a longer nose and tail than I do. It also has some hefty flippers – oh, and a long neck.

It was stood up on its hind flippers, just looking around. Its front flippers dangled in front, similar to a begging dog’s front legs.

It knew I was there, because, according to the books that I read, they have excellent eyesight, plesiosaurs, even in the dullest of lights. And if I could see it, I’m pretty sure that it could see me.

It probably thought I was some kind of Cyclops or something, what with the balaclava, but it didn’t move away or attack. It seemed very calm with the fact that I saw it. I thought about taking a quick photo on my mobile phone, but I realised that I’d left it in the Mansion.

It then decided to ‘slide’ back into the pond. I say pond, but it’s more of a lake, but who has a lake in their garden? A pond sounds more quaint. I also say ‘slide’, but it raised its nose into the air, and with all the grace of a lead balloon, belly-flopped beneath the water.

There are some strange creatures that visit these Grinds every now and then, but this has to be the first plesiosaur I’ve come across. Here, anyway.

I decided then to head back to the Mansion after that, as a damp balaclava only stays warm for so long, and the icy Siberian winds were starting to freeze my ears. And the balaclava.

Once inside, I did a quick research session, on Wikipedia, to see if plesiosaurs can come onto land, and according to this painting I found, they can.

You learn something new every day!