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.

A FRIEND recently saw a nightjar in Timoleague in west Cork, a sighting worth reporting.

ON sunny days — rare this summer — as we walk the lanes, bees are buzzing, flowers blooming, butterflies fluttering and birds carolling from the trees.

THE heron hesitated.

IT is 22 years since I came back to live in West Cork and 20 years since I began to write this column.