I came across it stretched out on the lane in the sunshine like a length of cable. A handspan from end to end, it took a moment to recognise the gleaming cord as a living creature – a slow worm, soaking up the warmth of the road surface. It’s a species I seldom see alive around my Dartmoor home.
Over the years I have regularly found dead individuals along this village lane: golden bracelets hammered flat by passing traffic. This one, lying motionless, was risking the same fate, so I crouched down to pick it up.
