Join me?

I thought I'd do a bit of imagining. After another day of staggering home through alternate slush and hard-packed, icy snow, I've picked this picture at random from Google images (it's a garden in South Africa) and am about to enter into it. Care to join me?

The heat is soaking into my back and starting to tan my wintry skin. I'm just going to wander down that little path, admiring those flowers - not sure what they are but probably something exotic that enjoys sunshine and dry earth. Look - a pool. I don't think I can quite be bothered to put on a swimsuit, but I'll sit on the edge and dangle my feet into the cooling water. Ah, that's so soothing. Now I'll stroll over and sit in the shade on one of those white chairs. I'll just read my book and wait for someone to bring me a drink - fresh orange, perhaps, with ice. Delicious. And so refreshing.

Bright-plumaged birds are carolling foreignly. Crickets - or the South African equivalent - are chirping. Can you hear the comforting buzz of non-bitey insects? Can you smell that newly mown grass? - not mown by me? The sky is a deep, uniform blue with threads of wispy clouds. There is the very tiniest of breezes.

In the far distance, I can hear the roaring of lions....

I have no real idea what South Africa is like (oh, you noticed?) and am sure I'll never be able to go there. But there's something about that picture that makes me think that it might be a tiny bit better than here, now, where the temperature is claimed to be -13 C (unheard of for Edinburgh), the buses are on a restricted service, the car is snowed in and the house is still quite chilly despite the central heating.

And meanwhile that sunshine beats down, the flowers bask in the heat and the giraffes look thoughtfully over the garden wall...