It was a once-in-a-lifetime event — we hope — Hurricane Ophelia, roaring across Ireland on October 16, and it wasn’t until five days later that we could enter our local woods with any degree of safety, writes Damien Enright

In the wake of Storm Ophelia, on the Tuesday morning, we opened the curtains on a world of blinding sunlight, and opened the French windows on a world a-buzz with the sound of chainsaws, writes Damien Enright. 

THE evenings are drawing in. It’s getting dark early. Out there in the snuffling night, young hedgehogs are on their great life-or-death adventure, writes Damien Enright.

Whole swathes of country hedges are red with haws. If we contrived to harvest them, we’d be millionaires, writes Damien Enright. 

Initiatives like the Irish Examiner ICMSA farming poll give hope for nature in Ireland. 

The season of mellow fruitfulness again swings round, the sun grows yellow, and the sky, when blue, is sharp and clear.

The Castlehaven wildflower show was displaying in glorious Technicolor last Sunday, only better than any camera lens or Photoshop could contrive, writes Damien Enright. 

A Cork resident wrote to me about Cork city planners apparent shortsightedness in asphalting over the city’s green spaces, writes Damien Enright

What amazes friends and neighbours who comment on the bearded seal that was identified in Courtmacsherry Bay early this month is that it has been resident here for up to two years.

Damien Enright’s regular visitor to this column, ’his’ heron, returns...