Country diary: the dance of the snow devils

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: Some were like wisps of bonfire smoke, others formed rolling circles of spindrift or reel-shaped vortices that blew themselves apart after a couple of secondsWatching snow devils rise, dance and vanish in the field, as if they were beings composed of moonlight, was strangely compelling. It was really parky. For the past few days there had been intermittent snow showers, slow-motion flakes drifting without direction that settled into a sugaring. These were separated, lik