Country diary: Snowdrops tumble down from high curtain walls | Susie White

Aydon Castle, Northumberland: On our woodland walk to this fortified manor house, we see wild garlic spearing through the leaf litter, buds of golden saxifrage, lesser celandine gleaming along the bankHigh above the jostling treetops, a buzzard gains lift with the wind. It's yet another buffeting day in a winter of many gales. I'm glad to have left the open fields for the shelter of this wood. The footpath that led up from Corbridge follows its namesake, the Cor Burn, a twisting stream that gathers water from the north side of the Tyne valley.This path must have been here for centuries. Sunk between root-encrusted banks, it's a hollow way, dappled brown with fallen oak leaves. A simple bridge crosses the burn where sound is patterned by shallow waterfalls over flat slabs of rock. Thrashed branches lie everywhere and there are a few fallen trees; one lies across the way, its burden of ivy hanging limp. Continue reading...