Country diary: Days like these have inspired great art | Carey Davies

Harewood, West Yorkshire: Today is a day of big weather in an even bigger sky. And yet, my eye is drawn to a flock of overwintering chaffinchesRainbows vault over fields, red kites wheel in the wind, and flotillas of nimbostratus clouds speed across the January sky, draping dark curtains of sleet across Wharfedale as they go. It is the sort of volatile weather you could describe as Turneresque, but the cliche at least has some local relevance, as not far away from here, at Farnley, JMW Turner witnessed similar conditions and was inspired to paint Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps, depicting a bruise-black stormcloud arching above the Carthaginian army like a malevolent wraith. It might be a day of huge skies and big views, but like most of the country, I have spent the last few months fielding a sequence of illnesses, and have often been forced to go at a slower pace. Perhaps because of this, I seem to have found myself noticing smaller things more, the glimpses of vitality in the winter landscape. Continue reading...