Country diary: Rushing rivers and bright red berries

St Dominic, Tamar Valley: By the woodland track strewn with trampled sweet chestnuts, the flow slows as it nears the tideOn the eastern horizon, the distinctive asymmetric shape of Sheeps Tor is a navy blue shadow in front of sunlit Dartmoor. Off Summers Lane, glossy cock pheasants and drab hens forage on the trodden field of yearling bullocks. Rank hedgebanks show off this year's prolific woody growth, and spangle and silk button galls stud the undersides of oak, in their cycle towards producing tiny wasps.Strands of bryony's red berries, sparse scarlet haws and the pink of campion brighten dull vegetation; shiny pennywort and hart's-tongue fern gleam beneath the grey sky. Downhill, the sound of chainsaws has stopped after the felling of ash with dieback. Above Radland's overgrown market gardens, puddles along the lane reflect a crisscross of bare branches, and downslope, the millstream rushes with water that rises beneath Viverdon Down. Laurel shrouds the ruins of the miller's house (home of ancestors in the 19th century); the mill itself is now a dwelling, and the little outhouse, with internal niches for straw bee skeps, remains intact. Continue reading...