Country diary: Purple catkins light the way towards spring | Oliver Southall

Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex: Look out for the alders - they're remarkable trees and one of our first to come to life as winter recedesA few wet weeks have left the ground here sodden, making walking a challenge. It doesn't help that my wellies have sprung a leak. On the rainiest days, I find my range reduced to a few splashy circuits of the village fields, the nearby Downs receding into hanging cloud.Nevertheless, there are signs of drier times to come. Today, my eye is drawn by a line of alders (Alnus glutinosa) that marks the course of a stream. Their graceful silhouettes are bathed in a distinctive maroon haze. Up close, the cause resolves into delicate clarity: purple catkins dangling in bunches from the tip of each twig. Formed at the end of last summer, they have recently begun to lengthen and unclench, coaxed by warming days. Soon (and well before the tree's round leaves unfurl), they will split open, revealing hundreds of vivid yellow stamens: tiny, lantern guides through the murk and mire of late winter. Continue reading...