THE short daylight hours of the Christmas holidays and of winter in general offer the opportunity for those who enjoy the outdoor world to read up on the finer details of natural history and be replete with knowledge and curiosity when the world reopens to welcome a new spring.

TWO new, outstanding nature books from Gill & Macmillan arrived in the post this week.

I RECEIVED an attractive book, Irish Wild Plants: Myths, Legends, Folklore by Niall MacCoitir from Collins Press last week.