Country diary: Suddenly the beech leaves are out | John Gilbey

Llanilar, Ceredigion: Walking an old railway route I find carpets of bluebells under the canopy, and a burst of fresh foliageThe buttercups are coming into flower in the churchyard of St Hilary's, and a few dandelions have already set seed - the globular heads barely moving in the still morning air. Nearby, a metal plaque, slightly corroded by time and weather, celebrates Llanilar's victory as Cardiganshire's best kept village in 1965 and 1966. The church sits on a river terrace that falls away to the flood plain of the Afon Ystwyth, and a steep banked lane guides me down past brightly emergent beech hedges to the site of the old railway station.Beyond the gravel station yard, little remains to show that this was once an important railway line, joining mid-Wales to the south. The line here closed at the end of 1964, after massive winter flooding not far from where I'm standing severely damaged the trackbed and a bridge. The rest of the line lost its passenger service a few months later, fading into the past with so many other rural routes. Last autumn, a Senedd petition exceeded the 10,000 signatures needed to consider a debate in the Welsh parliament on the feasibility of reopening the line. Time will tell. Continue reading...