I WENT down to the village shop the other day to buy mousetraps but they had sold out.

It’s the time of year when many gardeners are cleaning out their plots and digging them over. 

Hurricane season in the Caribbean is drawing to an end and the death throes of these violent tropical storms have an effect on far away Ireland. 

There is no doubt that November is the best month of the year for planting trees in this country.

I went fishing the other day. The plan was to catch pike by spinning for them from my canoe. I knew there were a lot of smallish pike in the bit of river I was fishing so I used small lures. The result was quite predictable - I caught no pike but quite a few nice perch.

Birch (Silver Birch is Betula pendula and downy birch is Betula pubescens)

TEAL

There is a rhyming riddle from Northern Ireland that goes ...

THE marina where I keep my boat is owned by a pair of magpies. At least, they seem convinced they are the proprietors of the harbour and a certain amount of the surrounding land. They hop confidently on and off the boats and jetties searching along the water’s edge for dead fish or anything else edible.

OUR summer migrant birds are starting to leave and our winter visitors will soon be flying in from the north.