Country diary: the Trickle’s white witchcraft turns everything to stone

Welburn, North Yorkshire: A spring from the lime-rich bedrock calcifies all in its path, from pine cones to snail shellsJanuary has wrapped itself so tight around the valley that there is no view today. Even the short sightlines in the woods are cloaked and murky. The mud on the main track is tedious, so I’m tempted by the firmer footing of a leafy badger path. It starts well but soon becomes steep and hostile, with bramble snares every few paces. The hulk of a dead birch gives way as I gr