Grow your own croak parkThat balmy, even clammy, Saharan spell of weather found a suitably copulatory scene in the pond, where the frogs had been hard…Sat Feb 28 1998 - 00:00
Mink make their markA few miles up the coast, where Clew Bay retreats to the shelter of its islands, some friends have been improving a big, leafy…Sat Feb 21 1998 - 00:00
Holding back the tideTwo weeks of high pressure were enough to flatten the surf into a murmur and usher some sand ashore again, soft as a fresh fall…Sat Feb 14 1998 - 00:00
A mockingbird in my bathroomThe big, round, wall-clock over the shaving-mirror in the bathroom has been on probation since Christmas, a present from America…Sat Feb 07 1998 - 00:00
Sounds of silenceThe recent brief blast from the Arctic, such a misery further east, turned out quite differently on this side of the hillSat Jan 31 1998 - 00:00
Battle of the speciesWith the garden in shreds, and squelching underfoot, I take refuge in a greenhouse that smells like the bottom of the Royal Canal…Sat Jan 24 1998 - 00:00
What have we dune?At the worst of the storms, when the barometer in the porch was tapping, as it were, on Empty, the sea rose up in some memorable…Sat Jan 17 1998 - 00:00
Beating a path to knowledgeThe amateur-naturalist's bric-abrac of shells, bones, stones and fossils around the margins of my living-space may suggest I …Sat Jan 10 1998 - 00:00
'Tis the season to see hollyI love the bright glow of the small country towns these dark afternoons, each one a setting for that ESB commercial about the…Sat Dec 20 1997 - 00:00
Lake invadersThe waters of Shannon's Lough Derg, so intensely blue and tranquil on a frosty day in December, are the focus of a new ecological…Sat Dec 13 1997 - 00:00
Beetle breakdownLittle haloes of sawdust, gathering round the feet of certain old and well-loved pieces of furniture (the hoovering is my job…Sat Dec 06 1997 - 00:00
Following every streamAn assault on The Hollow with bush-saw and loppers has felled a whole tunnel of 10-foot fuchsia bushes, dense and dark as mangroves…Sat Nov 29 1997 - 00:00
Eye on natureEach autumn, at the end of October, we find caterpillars of the large white butterfly climbing the walls of our house until they…Sat Nov 29 1997 - 00:00
Rock-hugging marvelsIn late November the Atlantic oakwoods of the west have taken on a stoical, contemplative moodSat Nov 22 1997 - 00:00
Sewing seeds of successA visiting poet went down to the lake to pay his respects to the whoopers and came back beatified by their elegant parade, their…Sat Nov 15 1997 - 00:00
An Eye On NatureI observed a jackdaw on a neighbouring chimney from which thick smoke was pouringSat Nov 01 1997 - 00:00
Moving mountainsAt this point in autumn the sunset has moved south, its two halves - sky and ocean - hinged at the horizon by the calm, dark …Sat Nov 01 1997 - 00:00
Prickly friendsNow that I've given up mowing for the winter, the tunnels through the grass in various corners of the acre have become a lot …Sat Oct 25 1997 - 01:00
Tapping the veins of folk wisdom'sLike the falling apple that may or may not have led Newton to significant thoughts about gravity, the cluster of conkers that…Sat Oct 18 1997 - 01:00
Tracking The FossilsEver since the fuss on the radio about the ancient salamander's footprints in a slate outcrop on Valentia island, Co Kerry, I…Sat Oct 11 1997 - 01:00
Silence broken by sound of choughsIn the delicious autumn silence that settled on the hillside last week, the contact calls of a flock of choughs - chee-ow! chee…Sat Oct 04 1997 - 01:00
Defending diversityThe journey home from Galway the other evening, a day of heavy rain, found the Maam Valley braided with floods from side to side…Sat Sept 27 1997 - 01:00
Getting a fix on our noisier owl!I loved a story from England this summer about the two bird-loving neighbours who, unknown to each other, went out to their gardens…Sat Sept 20 1997 - 01:00
Berries not plentiful - but tastyA beaujolais year for blackberries, says a friend who appreciates bothSat Sept 13 1997 - 01:00
Bring on the dancing butterfliesLate in its first summer, the herb garden may be reckoned a sprawling success, even with only half its plantsSat Aug 30 1997 - 01:00
Some settlers have six legsNowhere has this shrouded, muggy summer seemed more natural to the landscape than among the exotic gardens of our south-western…Sat Aug 23 1997 - 01:00
Of grave concernsDuring August, when aunts come visiting from the US, radio chat shows are wrenched around to the topic of overgrown graveyards…Sat Aug 16 1997 - 01:00
Thriving on the scattered showersIf there has to be a summer in Ireland (I would just as soon skip straight from spring to autumn), let it be of this old-fashioned…Sat Aug 09 1997 - 01:00
Thatcher in the ryeThe tiny rye fields scattered throughout the Aran Islands have ripened, greeny-gold, in the grey mosaic of limestone wallsSat Aug 02 1997 - 01:00
Polished by the lick of the tideIN a narrow street off the seafront in Brighton, the town where I was a child, was a shop with tall, curving windows and the …Sat Jul 05 1997 - 01:00
Ireland can suddenly slip into ice landTHERE are not, despite the blarney, 365 little islands in Clew Bay but certainly there are enough to impress: a maze, an archipelago…Sat Jun 28 1997 - 01:00
Its nor bother with a hoverOUTSIDE the double-glazing, the summer spiders weave a third veil of gossamer, so that the morning after a calm, midgey night…Sat Jun 21 1997 - 01:00
On the trail of the homegrown pineONE by one, the old rushy fields of cut-away bog along the road to Louisburgh are being reclaimed for grazingSat Jun 14 1997 - 01:00
EYE ON NATUREEarlier in the year I walked on my own by the river upstream from Kilkenny city. Each day I saw something new and excitingSat May 31 1997 - 01:00
On the sugar beat"I CONFESS to a liking for wasps, wrote Robert Lloyd Praeger, the great Irish naturalist, "they are so active and daring, dainty…Sat May 31 1997 - 01:00
Shaping the landscapeTHE clear-felled slopes in Connacht's state conifer forests have made drastic changes in the landscape, stripping back valleys…Sat May 24 1997 - 01:00
A tern on the upIN the conjugal clamour of nesting terns around the eastern shores of Ireland, the grating aaak! of the roseate tern, fresh from…Sat May 17 1997 - 01:00
Insects' lives and videotapeFOR a few charmed weeks in the middle of spring, the insect world and I are on excellent termsSat May 10 1997 - 01:00
EYE ON NATUREQ: Swallows come annually to my stable loft. They arrive usually around April 17th and depart mid-SeptemberSat May 03 1997 - 01:00
Sheep-scorched hills where no birds singTHE lake islands of Connacht are borrowed from another landscape, another time: mysterious, miniature Edens heaped with trees…Sat May 03 1997 - 01:00
Revelling in a touch of droughtA SPRING drought brings two particular pleasuresSat Apr 26 1997 - 01:00
Fear as a fact of lifeTO run a garden as part-allotment, part wildlife sanctuary, is to negotiate constantly on the borders of alarmSat Apr 19 1997 - 01:00
An end to peanut riotsSINCE the air warmed up and softened and the midges are making a dancing cloud around the garden tap (just to annoy me), the …Sat Apr 12 1997 - 01:00
Doing what comes organicallyIN the bud burst of willow and hawthorn, a haze of exquisite, silvery green marks out the hidden streams and by roads among the…Sat Apr 05 1997 - 01:00
