Country diary: A gusty tour of some old friends | Amy-Jane Beer

Castle Howard, North Yorkshire: Among the grand old trees there is a veteran birch that deserves more attention than it getsHaving spent a lot of the summer away from home, things have moved on without me, and the impossibility of being everywhere to see everything weighs heavy - a familiar, low-key fear of missing out. I decide to devote an entire morning to walking, regardless of gusty winds and persistent rain.If I used a tracking app, my route would seem a strange one: I zigzag, stop and start, stride out, then dawdle. But an aimless wander gradually becomes a tour of old friends. I offer a few words to the grandest oak on the Castle Howard estate (though not the oldest), then pause at a trackless spot in the wood where once, in a bout of post-Brexit despair, I encountered a horned forest god who reminded me that I still belonged. He lives there still, but invisibly now. Continue reading...