The hedgerows ...

... are a riot of colour at the moment. I wish there had been a bit of purpleloosestrife amongst this lot just to complete the colour scheme. Here are a few interesting facts about Irish hedgerows! There are an awful lot of them: they make up 6.4% of the country and they cover 300,000km!  The diversity of flora is incredible and they provide homes to literally hundreds of species and are a great source of food, wildlife corridors and habitats for nesting birds. Every year there is controversy about cutting hedgerows. The roads as you can see can be very small and the hedgerows leap out gustily onto the roads.  - technically they are not allowed to be cut between March 1st and August 31st when all birds should have finished nesting and here in Cork only the County Council are allowed to do so during this time if the exuberance is considered to be a danger to drivers.  Individuals are not allowed to sally forth with scythes. But they do. The hacking back can be a frightful sight as the hedge can literally be laid waste, habitats and sources of food wiped out in an instant. It can be very hard to see what's going on if you are driving and the hedgerows do bounce back but I would prefer to drive very slowly and safely than loose this precious riot of colour.

A new blog entry  too; the place to go should you be suffering from the ague.