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| Photo © Nigel Summerley |
That great white carpet beneath the trees... it's made up of countless snowdrops.
And this is just a small part of the breathtaking displays at Colesbourne Park in England's Cotswolds.
Said to be the greatest snowdrop garden in the country, its collection of these elegant flowers dates back to the 19th century.
It now includes around 250 different kinds of snowdrops... and to walk through it is like visiting a piece of heaven on earth.
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| Photo © Nigel Summerley |
I reckon they're not wrong.
I recently made the mistake of relying on Wizz Air to get me back from Spain on time.
My flight from Malaga at 11.45am was "delayed" until 5.15pm. So I spent seven hours in the airport with absolutely no information from Wizz Air.
When I asked at the gate through which we finally boarded what was the reason for the "delay", one of the airport staff told me that this flight was regularly cancelled – why, they didn't know.
Only when we got on board were we told by Wizz Air that there had been a "technical problem" – they claimed they'd had to get another plane because the original one wasn't working.
Things didn't improve. I'd reluctantly accepted having to fly back to Luton since an arrival before 2pm would give me plenty of time to get back into London. But the reality of not getting out of Luton airport until 8pm and then having to stand in the rain for an hour waiting for a bus on a train-strike day was rather different...
Customers rated Wizz Air as worse than Ryanair, says Which? Probably the ultimate non-accolade...
A Wizz Air spokesperson was quoted as saying: "We do everything possible to ensure that passengers reach their destination on time and with minimal delay."
Well, they'll be doing it without me – and probably without quite a few other unhappy customers – from now on...
But it has just taken on a new significance.
A reader in Key West, Florida, who saw my article in The Guardian on walking in the footsteps of Telemachus, got in touch to say he had hiked to the spring three decades ago... and left a bucket there for hauling up water.
I sent him a copy of this picture and he confirmed that the rusty bucket in the foreground looks like it's his.
Unfortunately, both his rusty bucket and the slightly less rusty one are no longer fit for hauling up water.
So maybe someone needs to take a new one up there...
If you fancy doing it, Walking In The Footsteps Of Odysseus – A Practical Guide To The Homeric Paths Of Ithaca, the book I worked on with author Jane Cochrane, may be helpful. Details at www.janeocochrane.co.uk.