Country diary: Sleeping Beauty knew a thing or two about spindle's tempting lipstick berries

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire This shrub and its toxic fruit have a minor but magical part in ancient woodlandShocking pink in a winter hedge, as if blown from some forever summer place, it is a colour out of season. And yet the spindle berries are perfectly at home in wood margins and hedges on the limestone of Wenlock Edge. It seems the spindle tree – which can grow six metres (20ft) tall but is usually a shrub – has a minor but magical part in ancient woodland and here associates with