Country diary: even in storm-battered fields there are seeds of hope

Barton-le-Willows, North Yorkshire: Wind and rain have all but destroyed the harvest, but near the crops is a mass of wildflowers, with seeds peppering the soilA borrowed yellow combine lurks behind a hedge, where it was left at 10 o’clock last night. My friend Richard Hudson, the farmer, had worked 17 hours on his birthday. “We were determined to keep going because we knew the weather was coming,” he says. “But eventually the machines couldn’t cope. I mean, look at