Country diary: ferns, mosses and lichens thrive in the damp

Bodmin Moor, Cornwall: A wet walk up Hawk's Tor reveals vibrant colours and verdant pastures

From North Hill village, drab hedge banks are dominated by faded ferns, rotting blackberries, dull leaves and sycamore keys. Yet a spell of afternoon sunshine picks out the scarlet berries of honeysuckle and enhances the verdancy of pastures beside the glittering Lynher, swollen after days of rain.

Across the river, steep woods edge the eastern side of Bodmin Moor; in the prevailing shade, spirals of gnats dance above upright fronds of buckler and male ferns, lit by sunbeams. Emerald moss-shrouded gateposts, stoned-up walls, tall tree trunks and fallen wood host pennywort seedlings and polypody ferns that thrive in the damp atmosphere. Shoals of leaves, beechmast and sparkling growan (decomposed granite) have been washed down the stony track and, from below, we hear the sound of the Withey Brook, rushing over the waterfall and towards the local hydroelectric power plant.