Country diary: Life has returned to these bits from the blitz | Jennifer Jones

Crosby to Hightown, Merseyside: The fragments of wall and chimney here were once the stuff of Liverpool's homes, now they protect the coast and are home to sea beet, plovers and turnstonesCrosby Coastal Path lures winter walkers north towards Hightown, where the River Alt, after meandering across North Merseyside, joins the Mersey to spill out into Liverpool Bay. Sandwiched between estuary, beach and scrub, with a ribbon of fixed dunes, there is much to tempt the senses here.It is bitterly cold today, harsh and penetrating, yet invigorating. The sky is cloudless and luminous, as only a winter sky can be. The scrubby sward, floral and fecund in summer, is now flattened and frost-embossed. A vole scuttles through the grass, its progress aided by the rigid archways of frozen plants. Continue reading...