Country diary: snow has drained the forest of colour

Glapthorn Cow Pastures, Northamptonshire: The naked winter wood seems vast and empty, silent but for the thick patter of melt dropsSnow, an inch or two, but a broken layer, mainly because the chill wind has plastered vertically. Swirling flurries fall still, but as the afternoon progresses, snow shifts into sleet, then freezing rain. A flock of 100 fieldfare hunt in an empty sheep pasture, scrutinising the half-buried sward for morsels of invertebrate food. Their backs dip and hunch above the sn