Feet over the side, then inching slowly, I felt the shock of the cold as I eased into the natural swimming pool. Gravity-fed from a spring, the water came from deep below the ground to be warmed only by the sun. At one end a pipe issued into a stone basin with a soothing constant sound. From there it filtered through seven feet of limestone gravel, cleaned by the plants that grew there. I looked down at my legs, tinted green, and felt the silkiness of strands of weed.
That was last summer. Now I’m back – not to swim, but to watch the many newts in their annual courtship display. Of the three species native to the UK, two come to this pool to breed: smooth newts, Lissotriton vulgaris, and palmate newts, Lissotriton helveticus, which spend the rest of the year on land. Everywhere I look I see newts: hanging against the algae-cushioned sides, lounging about on the curved steps, speeding up from the depths to gulp air then plummet down again.
Invertebrates flounder on the smooth surface: a drowning honeybee, black flies, midges, mayflies. A tiny insect struggles and is snapped up by a newt with a flick of its head and a gulp. Pond skaters scoot across the meniscus with jerky movements; a swallow dips to drink from the pool. Through the clear water I watch the weed wave slowly like drowned hair.
It’s the acidic soil of this garden, its compost heaps for winter hibernation, that allow palmate newts to thrive. During the breeding season, males develop black webbing on their rear feet, hand-shaped, giving them their common name. They swim in bursts, pausing with legs forwards like a rower resting on oars.
These males are beautiful in their finery, with dark spots and gleaming gold bellies. Their display has all the flair and drama of a flamenco dancer, tail looped back, fanning and pulsing vigorously to impress a female. They will mate in the water, then she will use her hind legs to wrap each egg in a curled leaf among the pond plants in the shallows. I’ll return to swim another time. For now I will leave them to the ritual dance of their green world.
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