Country diary: This is prime wild country - and should remain so | Jim Perrin

New Radnor, Powys: I reject in the strongest terms the idea that we must choose between building renewables and keeping our most precious landTo gain the high points of Fforest Clud (Radnor Forest), you start from New Radnor and head through the afforested Mutton Dingle, an appropriate name for a landscape feature in a region where sheep far outnumber people.The track leads into and eventually out of extensive spruce plantation. Conifers thin as you climb, giving way to native oak, birch, alder, hawthorn and ash. New growth on the dancing larches is brilliantly green. Long-tailed tits dart continually among the trees, still seeking moss with which to line their marvellously woven nests for rearing late broods. Verges are starred and spangled with tormentil and hawkweed. Green flowers of wood spurge glow against their older foliage; gorse blooms among tree-shadow. It's that final phase of yellow flowering season. Continue reading...