Country diary: Beaver-style flood defences take root amid a hosepipe ban

Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: Underfoot the ground is as hard as metal, while the council’s ‘leaky dams’ are set for the next delugeCatkins fall from the sweet chestnut trees like long yellow streamers from a party. More than 20 wasps fret over the bonnet of my car, feeding off something – maybe sticky tree sap or dead insects.The hay crop is in. No high yields, but better than last year. Two red kites hunt over the coumarin-sweet cut meadows and the swallows glide low. The empty fields usually beckon a gallop, but the ground rings out under hoof like a metalled road. If there is no rain, a second crop seems unlikely. Continue reading...