Country diary: spring has ambushed us again

Mid Wharfedale, Yorkshire Dales: Over the course of a day-long walk, the heartening signs of winter's end are plain to seeThe air is calm and hot, and the etchings of aeroplane contrails are the only blemishes on an otherwise flawless vault of Pennine sky. After this maddeningly prolonged winter, it feels impossible at first, like a wishful dream.Every year there is a day like this, which always manages to ambush us. The burst of warmth and brightness has produced a sudden, overwhelming uncorking of spring's long-brewed potential, and Mid Wharfedale is thrumming with vivid new life. Pollinators swarm over the nectar-rich catkins of a goat willow tree, electrifying the air around it with a restless buzz. Hawthorn has begun to sprout leaves of a green so green it is like seeing green for the first time. Pairs of oystercatchers match each other's swoops above the river Wharfe, their shrill, clamouring calls full of the urgency of the breeding season. Continue reading...