Blog

Listing best beaches is a problem as I haven’t visited a single beach this year; shame on me.  It is the middle of July and flip flops, togs and sun cream are now in the beach bag so no [...]

Hard to believe that Midsummer and the longest day of the year is this week.  The Summer Solstice, which is celebrated far and wide, is now upon us. I refuse to mention our summer weather as [...]

Switzerland has simply divine alpine flowers and Italy is known for their spectacular exotics such as Bougainvillea. France is famous for their massive fields of Lavender. Much farther afield in [...]

Carrick-on-Shannon is one of the prettiest towns in Ireland.   Located on the banks of the Shannon it has for years been known as the centre for boat hire for the gentlest of leisure [...]

All of a sudden there are daffodils springing into bloom everywhere. February is somewhat early for the daffodil, a member of the Narcissus family.  They have a much closer association with March [...]

Lots of people get engaged at Christmas so January is a very busy month for loved up couples looking at venues for their forthcoming nuptials. There are so many hotels, castles and specialist [...]

On the spur of the moment today I ventured forth to Ranelagh, an old stomping ground of mine from my youth.  It was always a buzzy place and in recent years has become one of Dublin’s best [...]

Yes, it’s time to mention the dreaded ‘C’ word – Christmas! As soon as Halloween (sometimes even before!) is finished the world and his wife are in Christmas mode.  [...]

Last Saturday on the second day of an amazing Ryder Cup competition I had the pleasure of playing golf on the understated Balbriggan parkland golf course in north Co. Dublin.  It is quite close [...]

It had been a while since I had visited the Merrion Hotel and being Saturday and a last minute decision it couldn’t have been a better choice.  It was as if it had been planned for weeks [...]