Country diary: An area the size of York opened up to nature

‘On this tree, each twiggy cluster is capturing leaves falling from above, resulting in a series of natural hanging baskets.’ Photograph: Amy-Jane Beer

Morning fog has reduced the visible landscape to a few tens of metres, and it takes the rhythm of my strides – up, two-three-four; down, two-three-four – to remind me that beneath the sward, this pasture is still rippled like a ribcage from the till and turn of long-ago strip farming. Post-enclosure, most of these riggs and furrows were lost to plough or plantation, leaving just these few in areas of lightly grazed and assiduously picturesque pasture. Elsewhere, the terrain became one of fields and hedges.

But change is coming again. Adjacent to the tellingly named Bog Hall, an area comparable to that inside York city walls is almost a year into a nature restoration scheme.