Blooming wonderful display around Ireland's country road hedgerows

It’s the time of year when everything is blooming. Wild plants in flower dress every rural lane in gay profusion, plants we never see at other times of year.

A couple I met on a sunny country road the other day asked me what it was that was absorbing my interest in a hedge — it was a ringlet butterfly — and then what would be worth looking out for in these weeks of mid-summer.

I’m sure they knew as well as I did and asked as a politeness, knowing that I was a contributor to this august (and year-round) Irish Examiner