What could be nicer on a sunny Sunday morning than a ride on the London Eye?

Followed by a quick Tube and bus ride to Columbia Road Market.

Where two big bunches of tulips and two shocking pink primulas in pots cost the enormous sum of £3. And the scent of hyacinths and narcissi and mimosa filled the air.

This left plenty to spare for a dainty rose-petal-sprinkled chocolate cupcake and a cup of builders' tea here.

Of course, had I kept my nerve, I could have bought even bigger and lovelier bunches of tulips just before the market packed up.

You have to time it just right. But isn't it nice to think that, all over London tonight, the girlfriend of the young man who bought the enormous bunch of mauve tulips, and the black lady who bought two huge bouquets of orange flowers, and the two young girls who chose blue irises and snow-white lisianthus, are all loving their flowers and thinking how nice it is that it's spring.