GARDENS are important to wildlife and, in my opinion at least, wildlife is important to gardens.

THERE is a log fire in the grate in the kitchen and some strange form of paralysis seems to have immobilised me in the fireside chair.

YOU’VE probably got your Christmas tree by now, and I hope it’s a real tree grown in Ireland and not a plastic, made-in-China, job.

FIELDFARES and redwings are often lumped together.

SNOW in towns is pretty awful stuff. It instantly turns brown and mushy, penetrating townie footwear and spraying up from the wheels of cars.

MY BOAT is now back at its winter moorings at the junction of the Main Line and Barrow Line of the Grand Canal in Lowtown.

THE nights have been cold around here.

OF all the large animals that have become extinct in Ireland the most fascinating is the wolf.