Searching in vain

Two consecutive dry afternoons - sunny, even! Spent all yesterday afternoon gardening. Mr PP was cutting off huge spurts of growth in a side hedge - mainly leylandii, but littered with prolific roses. I was on the ground, cutting up the debris for recycling. At the end of yesterday afternoon, I came in, took off my coat, and noticed the brooch that had been pinned to my sleeveless fleece was missing. By then it was dark!

Today I spent all afternoon looking for the little brooch. It's in the shape of a dolphin, enameled in royal blue and emerald green, with a sparkly tail and eye in rhinestones. I never wear any of my brooches out in case I lose them, but never thought to remove this before gardening. Despite having a safety catch, and being inside my zipped up coat, it must have fallen off. 

The good news is that I'm confident it's not in the green bin, which is due to be collected by the council tomorrow. The bad news is that it hasn't turned up, though it is akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. I've carefully looked everywhere I went and have gone through all the debris, cutting it all smaller, and looking out all the time for my brooch. All to no avail! 

The biggest danger is that it is buried in the lawn, sucked under by the squelchy clay that the grass and moss grow from. After so much rain, it could easily be out of sight and lost for good. Such a shame. It's probably not valuable - "only" costume jewellery - but I was fond of it and very sad to have lost it. This garden is too much. Beautiful, but too much!