by Melissa Byrne & Gillian Hegarty One of the tastes of summer is most definitely that of a fresh strawberry, eaten in the (hopefully!) West Cork sunshine. In West Cork, we are so lucky to have Union Hall and Bushby’s strawberries on our doorstep. What makes our local strawberries special […]
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We got ourselves a completely new commission this month, babysitting our grandson in Budapest, all expenses paid. It was an offer impossible to refuse, especially as we’d never been to Hungary before It’s been a new experience, exploring an unknown city with a four-year-old who does find the city remarkable, […]
I was recently shown a photograph of something from a local beach that I hadn’t noticed before. It resembled a giant honeycomb growing over a mussel-covered rock. The thing was a colony of Sabellaria alveolata, the honeycomb worm. The individual worms are only about four centimetres long, but each builds a […]
Russia’s war against Ukraine; and now the USA and Israel’s joint war against Iran have really underlined the importance of sovereign nations being energy independent. It begs the question writes Fiona Hayes Vincent why countries do not regularly re-evaluate their independence in food supply, medical supplies and energy. We have […]






