Welcome to a week in the country

with Dr Catherine Keena

Teagasc countryside management specialist

Look out for the last ivy berries, now black, soft and partially eaten by birds such as blackbirds, thrushes, robins and wood pigeons. They also provide food for holly blue butterflies. This stage of ivy is not always recognised because the leaves are simple and more oval than the more recognised three lobed ivy leaves on the plant in its climbing phase. It is not parasitic, but gets nutrients from its own roots rather than the tree onto which it clings with tiny roots. Some thrushes, blackbirds and wrens are now building nests in ivy. Love or hate it, ivy is part of our native Irish biodiversity.

Loughnadarragh

by Trevor Johnston

My cast is long

The rod spins with its own

Volition

Though the silence

Carrying my troubles

With it.

Into the deep waters.

The casting act

Has unfettered

Me of the chains

Of everyday strains

And stresses.

Carrying the worries

Off my mottled brow

Deep into the murky

Boggy depths.

I fish for words

To describe the peace

The harmony with nature.

As I stand there

In this heathery glen.

Few stop here

On this sodden shore.

‘cept the fisherman

Angling for pleasure.

Or Reynard,

For replenishment

As he plots his homeward

Journey

Cross the bog.

But it is my refuge

From a strife torn

World.

The rhodedendrons

Arch their heads

In supplication

Of the quiet.

I arch mine

Because my

Time is near.

If you’re planning an elaborate Easter feast this year, it’s a good time to incorporate some native Irish ingredients - like wild garlic. It grows abundantly at this time of year in nearly all parts of Ireland. You can use the leaves to infuse the cream for your dauphinoise potatoes, or blitz in the food processor with some nuts, good Irish rapeseed oil and a hard aged Irish cheese (I like using Cáis na Tíre) for a delicious wild garlic pesto. Combine with Irish apple cider vinegar, some green chillis and fresh parsley for a wild garlic chimichurri (delicious when served with seared or roasted beef) or, if you’re serving soup for a starter, blend with spinach, peas and sauteed leek for a zingy spring soup.

Amanda Logan with her Boer kid born St Patrick’s Day Drumshanbo, County Leitrim, Ireland. / Photo by Jen Logan

"Garabandal to Fatima looked fairly straightforward on my sat-nav. However, to get there I might as well have tapped in ‘the old road’ instead of ‘toll-road’. The climb over the twisted Cantabrian mountain roads was horrendous and my Lourdes confession was blown to bits with my verbal explosions."

Cork farmer Denis O’Hea and his epic road trip to three south European

Marian shrines, see travel.

the percentage of people in Ireland who say that only buying ‘essentials’ is now what’s important to them. See part two of our consumer behavior series.

Wexford-based textile artist Trish Middleton talks to Maria Moynihan about following her dream in this week's Meet The Maker.