Female robin will paint town red when her mate’s away

It’s in the nature of female robins. Nevertheless, their macho partners don’t like it.

Showers, while we were sleeping brought a sudden and delightful eruption of colour to the road, verges along the bay, mats of celandine, daisies, dandelion, and wild garlic where there had been trimmed green carpets the day before. It was as if paint had been splashed along the road, as if, overnight, graffiti artists had been at work.

In the morning sun, nests of creamy primroses basked in the shelter of the ancient ruin of Abbeymahon and under fuchsias on wayside walls. The air was scented on the bohreen; the very perfumes of Arabia! Out on the big strand, we could feel the warmth of summer. The sea reflected the sun and the white sand threw back the heat. I threw stones for a neighbour’s dog, a clever animal. Even when I threw a non-descript pebble into a bed of them 20 yards away, the dog always brought back the right one.