THE other day I was having a drink with a neighbour of mine who is a part-time farmer.

I HAVE an organic vegetable garden. Organic gardening, according to the textbooks, is supposed to create harmony between nature and the gardener. You exercise a bit of give and take and achieve a state of balance in which chemical pesticides and fertilisers become unnecessary.

IF I step out of my front door these days I am surrounded by baby wrens.

I HAVE A friend who lives in a small Georgian house.

SEVERAL SPECIES of bird that breed in Ireland are summer migrants that come to us from Africa.

I LIVE surrounded by ash trees.

THE other day I had a very pleasant job to do.

THERE’S a large elder tree on my patio and a pair of wood pigeons have nested in it.

THE DAYS are getting longer, the nights are not as cold and, in my part of the country at least, we’ve had quite a lot of rain. All this has resulted in a massive explosion in plant growth.

WHEN we first bought the small cottage in the country that has now expanded to become our current house the only water supply came from one of those cast iron pumps with a little knob on the spout to hang your bucket on and a long handle that you pump up and down.