RECENTLY on a bus ride to Mitcheldean we stopped at the crossroads below Ruardean where much to my surprise along the wall of a front garden were six or seven small hedge plants standing in a row.

It was just possible to make out the form of some garden animals there – a large frog and a snail being my two favourites carefully sculpted out of the hedges. They raised a smile that day!

– Janet Baily, Ross-on-Wye.