Country diary: treading through the wet dregs of a hard year

Ramsley Moor, Derbyshire: Vibrant crowberries are a cheering sight on a sodden and difficult climbProgress was painfully slow, so I leaned on my stick for a breather. On the skyline, about 1,000 yards to the east, someone was standing beside the old medieval cross on Fox Lane. They would be having an easier time of it, I thought, on a good path. I was surrounded by huge clumps of molinia, or purple moor grass, picking my tedious way between them along deep troughs that December's rain had left slopping with water. Looking down, I saw my boots were now wholly submerged.The grass itself was white-blond and lifeless. Patches of bracken had gone over, no longer bronze but dull brown and slimy. A skim of grey cloud had flattened the light. I felt myself in the wet dregs of a hard year. Continue reading...