AS we enter the last days of what is meteorologically winter, it’s pleasant to look ahead to the warmer times that spring promises.

And on Dartmoor winter always seems reluctant to release its grasp, but at the tiny hamlet of Huccaby, set above the West Dart River, spring has indeed sprung.

The tiny church of St Raphael’s Chapel at Huccaby is famed for its snowdrops, also known as Candlemas Bells.

From mid-January to early March, depending on how harsh the winter has been, the churchyard is covered in a white carpet of thousands of them.

It’s a late start for the display this year but within the next ten days thousands upon thousands of the myriad of white bell-like flower heads will brighten the churchyard as nature reawakens once more.