THE COUNTRYSIDE has donned its mantle of green and you can scent the fragrances of early summer, especially the vivid yellow gorse that lights up the landscape in April. 

THE COUNTRYSIDE has donned its mantle of green and you can scent the fragrances of early summer, especially the vivid yellow gorse that lights up the landscape in April. 

IS any food truly safe to eat?

TIME was when the traditional Irish thatched cottage was associated with rural poverty. Then, there was a change in perception when photographer John Hinde — a man who always portrayed Ireland as a land of perpetual sunshine and blue skies — came along. His postcards featuring such cottages went all over the world.

ONCE persecuted to extinction here, the buzzard, a bird of prey, seems to be making a comeback and we’ll probably be seeing more of it in southern parts, writes Donal Hickey

JUST like Christmas, it happens annually with calendar certainty. From around St Patrick’s Day until well into April, the uplands are ablaze in parts of the west and southwest. 

OUR grandmother’s liking for carrageen moss was looked upon as a sort of an oddity, says Donal Hickey.

ON a visit to the royally-endorsed English Market, in Cork, globetrotting TV chef Rick Stein was pulled, as if by magnetic force, to the seafood corner, as are many.

A WALK on a country road these days will show that we don’t have to look too far to see nature showing its face again, writes Donal Hickey.

Bold lettering on a quirky tee-shirt we saw a man wearing the other day declared that if you want to be happy for a day, get drunk, but if you want to be happy for life, take up fishing.