Country diary: Each tree here is a story in ancient harmony | Mark Cocker

Deep Dale, Derbyshire: Hazels are a local speciality, but my favourites are the hawthorns, which are smothered in vegetation from trunk to tipThe bottom part of this Plantlife reserve, where it meets Monsal Dale, has some of the finest trees I've found in the Peak District. Not for their age or massive size, but for what you might call their entangled condition. A recent find is an old pollarded horse chestnut whose sinuous limbs wave wildly, and every one of them is completely moss-and-fern coated.If it didn't also look so tough and monumentally static, the whole thing could easily resemble kelp swaying in the tide. The late Tony Hare, co-founder of the organisation that owns Deep Dale, invented a phrase: "As mad as a tree." In this instance it feels apt. Continue reading...