The Best Wood in the World

We missed the snowdrop open days at Raveningham but here we could see them growing wild for free!

This wooded area, between the river and the main road, hosts thousands of snowdrops, last visited with my brother on one of his rare visit from Australia. His wife had never seen snowdrops before and is more of an orchid grower herself. But she was delighted with their simple purity. Would they still be there, I wondered, when we took our little granddaughters to see them – who were not born when my brother and sister-in-law last visited. And yes they were – carpets of them!

The girls were enchanted with the wood – "The best wood in the world!", according to the older one – with its soft layers of oak leaves, mossy clearings (where fairies dance at night) and banks with interesting entrances in them. Badgers? Foxes?

As the girls rushed about, kicking up leaves, picking up empty snail shells to stuff into my pocket and marvelling at the sleeping ladybirds warming in the sunshine, I stood in awe of these beautiful little flowers with their pearly white blooms and glaucus green leaves.

They won't be in flower for much longer. Already the crocuses are coming out and next the daffodils, violets and tulips and, when summer arrives in all of its riches, the sweet honeyed snowdrops that tell us that spring is really on its way, will be forgotten.

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