A world beyond our world

Where to begin?

At this time of the year, nature provides themes at every turn. Bluebells fill the woods, especially dramatic when the sun strikes them through gaps in the canopy. The beeches above them are just as lovely, with the sun filtered through the new leaves, still pastel green.

A Nature Trail has been created at Droumillihy Wood, on the road between Rosscarbery and Leap in west Cork, waymarked routes enhanced by the stands of bluebells among tall, slim beeches. The paths are freshly made and the going so easy that one might take one’s granny — but, of course, grannies are often fitter than their grandchildren these days. The woods are “lovely, dark and deep” as Robert Frost described his New England woods of a snowy evening. But Droumillihy, through which my wife and her sisters often walked from their home to the creamery at Cononagh as children, were filled with flowers, not with snow.