It’s relatively well known that before the arrival of humans, aproximately 9000 years ago Ireland was covered in mixed, broadleaf woodland. A huge amount of deforestation happened in the first few millennium as the human population became settled and these first Irish are often both credited and blamed for how the Irish landscape looks today,
When I was 12, nearly 13, I had a science project due; one of my first of secondary school. I loved forests so I decided to look at the effects of deforestation which led me to studies of Greenhouse Gases. It was 2004 and while people knew about “global warming”, it was not on the
Tis the season for good intentions, for setting goals and challenging yourself to be better. But I’ve been known to give quite a lot of side-eye to the whole idea of New Years Resolutions because I think that for the most part they are a trap. Once a year people try to solve all the
There are lots of things that make the transition between writing sometimes and being a quote-unquote “writer” but at least some of them are psychological. For years you consume “Top 10 Tips on Plotting Your Novel” and listen to TEDTalks but can’t see any marked improvement in the standard of your writing. Then one day
When the darkest days come we come together, We may never know why happiness sets us apart but, tragedy stretches out a hand and lips to kiss it better. And we were born on either end of the darkest week. But our tragedy was that those seven days and seven years separated us in ways
Tell the bees that I have died, They used to say that if the hives weren’t told of a birth or death in the family they would leave the keeper, So there is no need to lie. Tell the bees I am no more, Bees in the house can be a sign of good luck
‘Save the Bees’ – an ideal Instagram caption for wildflowers you’ve spotted by the side of the road. The phrase has taken on meme-like status over the last few years, both in the idealistic aesthetic sense and in more absurdist millennial humour. Surely everyone has had the joy of this GIF in their lives NY
The first thing you need to know about my ‘no single-use plastic’ January is that 100% I still used single-use plastics. I did not succeed in avoiding them entirely because there are just so many insidious sources of plastic in everyday life. I would have had to adopt #StopthePlasticTide as a full time job to
When I decided to stop using single use plastics this month I did not anticipate that brushing my teeth would be one of the most complicated parts of that challenge. Dentists tell us to change over toothbrushes every 3 months, that’s four a year for your life. Even assuming people don’t follow that advice strictly
There has been some controversy in my life recently from a source I would never have expected. Teabags. Those who know me know that the volume of tea I can drink on a given day in likely outside of safe levels but at least I always knew that my compost bin was healthy. Or not,
