Country diary: a dissonant overlay of realities

Valley of Desolation, Wharfedale, Yorkshire Dales: The snow revives innocence, but it's from this winter's dramatic destabilisation of the polar vortex and a reminder of climate change

Spring is held in a sort of suspense. The sun's growing confidence brings hope, but the blizzards are back again, shutting out the light, clogging the floor of Strid Wood with snow, smothering the first leaves of dog's mercury and ramsons. Around this date in previous years I have heard drumming snipe on the moors or found breeding frogs in the ponds around here, but there will be few such mood-lifting discoveries today.