THERE are more birds in the garden these days, or so it seems.

As the beech leaves fall in all their legion colours and float on the garden pond or lie on the bottom like a bright mosaic under the clear water, whirligigs scud about on the surface like little, black, four-legged ice skaters or sometimes rest on slowly-floating leaves that are half submerged.

Standing on the bridge of the Feagle River at Rossa Street in Clonakilty, I was intrigued to see small trout in the swim of the water, and to see a dipper fly upriver from under the bridge and alight on a rock in midstream.

IN her lodgings in India, toads insisted on climbing into her suitcase.

ON this sunny September day, the flowers on the sedum plants in the garden have, I think, reddened more since I visited them this morning, and the insects visiting them have increased three-fold.

HOW wonderfully a day of sunshine transforms the world, and ourselves.

RAIN has been unusually reliable this summer.

SARDINIA and Corsica are physically similar.

IN June, I wrote about the Aran islands, and the extraordinary landscapes my wife and I encountered there.

I FOUND my first field mushrooms of the year on Jul 1 on a cliff top on the Seven Heads in west Cork, fine robust specimens, fist-sized, fresh and shining, with no worm damage whatsoever.