Scarlet signs of spring

Mickleton, Teesdale: Scores of elf cups, vivid as a guardsman’s regimental tunic, have begun to open in the lee of a stone bridge

That moment in the year had arrived when a longing for spring set in but when winter, which drained colour from the landscape, still refused to relent. Restless lapwings seemed unable to settle, torn between feeding opportunities in the fields and the frosted high pastures where they will nest. Celandine buds remained as tight as clenched fists. Some hazel catkins, scorched by frost, had paid the price for precocity.

But there was one spot where we knew we would find colour as intense as anything summer can deliver. On an embankment in the lee of a stone bridge over the disused railway line, sheltered under a tangle of alder, willow and hawthorn, among moss-covered twigs torn down by winter gales, we found scores of scarlet elf cups.

Related: Country Diary: Wenlock Edge