As you carve that big roasted turkey on Christmas Day, I wonder how many will ask: why is a bird from America named after a country in Asia Minor? Turkeys belong to the family Phasianidae, along with pheasants, peacocks, chickens, partridges, grouse and quails. This family is part of a […]
On a fine May evening four years ago, I came across a most delightful sight: three little fox cubs in a neighbouring field, happily chasing one another around while their mother watched out for danger. This was such a treat for me, having just returned from two years in a […]
I have been writing these articles for over a year now. My first piece was about rubbish that washed up on the nearest beach. Last year I picked about 40kg of litter out of the seaweed and sand, most of it small pieces of degraded plastic drink bottles. I have collected […]
There are many animals that reach a great age. Tortoises and turtles are especially long-lived. In his lovely 1948 book ‘Over the Reefs’, Cork-born writer and artist Robert Gibbings (whose father was rector of St. Multose Church in Kinsale) told of a radiated tortoise called Tu’i Malila that lived as […]
One of the highlights of any trip to China is the Great Wall. To enjoy it, you must see those sections far away from Beijing, where there will be fewer tourists and less commercialism. Unfortunately, when I first lived in China, nearly twenty years ago, my visit to the Great […]
I have a good friend who lives in Kenya – we used to teach in the same school in Mombasa. Some years ago, I stayed for a couple of weeks with her and her family in an old stone and thatch cottage right beside the Indian Ocean. Around the nearby headland […]