Isn’t it a godsend the weather has strung a few good days together. Here at home, everywhere is squelching wet after all the rain. With the few dry days I got a chance to do a bit in the garden, including planting the ‘Bridal Wreath’ daffodils and ‘Ballerina’ tulips I bought at the Ploughing.

I’m a bit sceptical about the tulips as last year after planting them, none appeared – not even one. I’m advised I hadn’t planted them deep enough and the slugs got to them. So they are planted a lot deeper this year and I will wait and see what happens.

In the middle of this work, Sean called me down to the orchard. He was intently watching something in the grass but I couldn’t see a thing. However, I was very much aware of there being lots of wasps about and I hate wasps. He got me to go closer and lo and behold wasn’t there the entrance to a wasps’ nest sitting in the middle of some long grass. The entrance was about the size of a tin of beans with a tunnel about the length of the same tin. All around was chopped grass held together by God-knows-what to make the nest.

It was swarming with wasps, busy about their business. It might be nature at its best but it gave me the creeps and I couldn’t get away from it fast enough. I had visions of all these wasps turning on Sean and myself and stinging the life out of us.

Of course, I compounded my fear by having a nightmare about wasps that night. It was a scene straight out of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds where Tippi Hendron is being attacked by angry birds. Instead of birds, I dreamed the house was being attacked by wasps the size of finches. We had blocked the fireplace but they were throwing themselves at the windows, trying to break in. The nightmare was so realistic I woke up in a shot convinced we were under attack. Of course we weren’t, but I can still see those enormous wasps. Anyway, my nightmare is certainly something I will raise with psychologist Michael Murphy, who will be telling us all about our dreams at the upcoming Women & Agriculture Conference. It should be a bit of craic.

Finally, well done to whoever was responsible for clearing away the furze bushes around the great elk sculpture on the Cork-Limerick road. The sculpture is not too far from the Blarney turnoff and if you are coming from the Limerick direction, it really is a most magnificent sight.

Another favourite is the bull and the chariot driver on the N7. It was designed for the old Nenagh bypass and sadly has lost most of its impact now that that road has been upgraded to a motorway. It’s estimated there at least 1,500 pieces of roadside art throughout the country. And the man responsible for the initiative was none other than President Michael D Higgins. When he was minister for arts, he initiated the Per Cent for Art Scheme, whereby public bodies delivering capital programmes could set aside up to 1% of the funding for public art.

This Saturday, I will be in Buttevant to take part in Developing a Sustainable Heritage Tourism in Small Irish Towns, a conference organised by Buttevant Heritage Group. See www.buttevantheritagetourism conference.com