A strangescape, a confession and about the lion.

1. Grape hyacinths. They look like a forest of bobbly trees in the wrong colour, rising out of a bed of succulent reeds.

2. He admits that he feels like pushing us both in the pond. I climb quickly back up the bank away from the water's edge. I'm tempted to jump in myself.

3. I love hearing Virginia McKenna speak -- she is narrating a documentary about Christian the Lion. She sounds as if she has every confidence in your ability to keep her secret.