Work of art ?

Hardly.

This overpriced lump of statuary is for sale in The Coppice, a rather trendy garden centre not far from the Aston Villa training ground.

If you’re into (minor) celebrity watching you might just be rewarded. I once spotted Danielle Lloyd posing on the bonnet of a large 4 by 4.

I overheard a hilarious conversation between three pretty little girls, aged seven or eight or so. They’d been giggling at some of the stonework but had discovered a chipped toe on another exhibit. Some of the suggestions about how he’d met this fate were rather amusing.

I wanted to see if they had anything reduced. I was not in luck. They’d even cleared all the sale bargains from behind the main building. But the toys were fun, and excellently displayed. (Extra)

Not too disheartened, I popped into the wonderful farm shop, Forage. Really delicious large free range eggs at good prices, and top quality meats well reduced. I was lucky.

I went for a gentle stroll over to Middleton Hall (closed of course) but the beauty of the lake wasn’t enhanced by the miserable cloud cover. So, the posing goddess became the blip choice.