Like a signpost pointing to sunny spring days, a walk in the countryside, better times, and doing more of the things we’re not able to do at the moment, snowdrops have always been a symbol of better times to come. In normal years, their simple beauty heralds spring and summer. This year they mean much more. As each day passes and another 250,000 people in the UK alone receive a Covid vaccination (I had my first this week) the infection rate will drop – proof is Israel, where 30% of the population have been vaccinated and the infection rates have dived – and we’ll begin to return to life as we knew it.
Soon snowdrops will be joined by crocuses, daffodils, tulips and other flowers. And soon buds will appear on trees, and then without knowing it spring and summer will be all around us, while Covid infections keep dropping.
Snowdrops are the white flag of hope, pointing to a brighter future, telling us not to give up, giving us pleasure, and so significant.
I’m thankful for my garden and being able to pick the snowdrops in the image from there, and to my wife for making the vase I put them in.
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My recent publications
Life in four stories
All proceeds go to the INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS (ICRC) to help the most vulnerable communities fight COVID – 19.
Four shorts: two about life, love, and death; one a poignant and disturbing memory that dangles a question unanswered; and one a wild fantasy – plus the first chapter of my latest book, Otto and Frankie.
By buying this book you are helping fund ICRC in its valuable work.
Thank you.
My latest novel, Otto and Frankie, is about a dying man’s fight against injustice, his wife’s unusual affair, and the love from his long-lost daughter.
Otto and his daughter Frankie could not be more different. He’s rich, an acclaimed author, human rights activist, and lives in England. She lives in New York, just about survives from one pay cheque to the next and hasn’t seen or spoken to her father for twenty years. Dutifully reunited by his impending death, she’s amazed to find him a kind and noble man who, while grappling with his wife’s bizarre affair, champions for the world’s forgotten and dispossessed to his last. After Otto’s death, Frankie’s admiration for her father leads her into a dangerous and life changing pursuit.
Nick Wastnage 