After the busy festive period, refresh your senses at a surprising variety of locations during the Scottish Snowdrop Festival, 4 February to 18 March 2012. Taking place at over 50 gardens across Scotland’s mainland, the festival is a great chance to get out in the fresh air and explore your local area, visit gardens and parks - some of which are open especially for the festival - and enjoy around 300 types of this delicate white flower which appears to defeat the cold winter by bursting into life each year. The versatility of the snowdrop means that they grow in a wide range of locations, so you can see a lot of what Scotland has to offer by visiting the Snowdrop Festival gardens. Everything from a footpath sprinkled with snowdrops by a waterfall which inspired Robert Burns in Perthshire, to carpets of snowdrops at Culzean Castle in South Ayrshire can be enjoyed. During a visit you can also tour castles and stately homes, visit deer parks and tea rooms or see specialist varieties of snowdrop like those at the Shepard House Snowdrop Theatre in East Lothian. Up in Sutherland you can take in the natural beauty of a sea of snowdrops on a coastal walk at Dunrobin Castle, whilst those looking for a bit of drama should head to Snowdrops by Starlight at Cambo Woodland Gardens in Fife. On an illuminated evening walk, the snowdrops - including varieties such as the intriguingly named Grumpy, Heffalump, Comet, Robin Hood and Walrus - are lit up along with magnificent trees and woodland sculptures. Check the web link for individual venues.