Rural resolutions

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PESSIMISM is the very petrol of defeat, so let us not be downhearted about the unhappy state of British biodiversity.

This point in the calendar should be a time of optimism and hope. We may not be able to wave a magic wand, but here are our surely reasonable New Year wishes and resolutions for the countryside in 2026.

A polite memo to the weather gods: if Britain's location on the globe, caressed by the Gulf Stream, is Goldilocks-fortuitous, being neither too hot nor too cold, the weather in these isles can be, shall we say, eccentric and is becoming increasingly so..

A year that commences with a sunny spring for the chicks, followed by a balmy summer for butterflies but without the scorchers that turn vegetation into a tinder box and deplete the reservoirs-would be ideal.