Here, on a winter's day, is a book to lift your heart and delight the eyes. It is from that excellent publishing house Tir Eolas of Newtownlynch Kinvara, County Galway, the book a real page-turner both as to its writing and the brilliant illustrations by Gordon D'Arcy and Anne Korff. It is A Burren Journal by Sarah Poyntz the text being extracts from her contributions to the Country Diary column of the Guardian newspaper.
Here we have the stones of the Burren, the animals, domestic and wild, the birds in great variety, the flowers, the bushes, the smell of the Atlantic. And, if you don't already know the area, Gordon D'Arcy and Anne Korff bring it to you in memorable, sensitive colour. Pine martens were ruthlessly extirpated here over centuries, but may now be coming back, perhaps especially in the west.
Sarah Poyntz records a couple of encounters. "There he was brown-suited, honey-coloured front ... Martes martes, our Burren pine marten. His fur, richly brown, was thick and long, that on the tail more so. In the evening's slanted light he was glossy, burnished." And "The eyes were large, shining, the round ears fringed with creamy fur." He moved about the garden hoovering up crumbs put out for the birds and left after about half an hour as the people in the house marvelled. (Body-length can be up to 56 cm, weight to more than 2 kilos.)
A hazel wood. "Though I am not tall I had to stoop to enter ... The trees grew thick from moss-covered rocks .... Everything seemingly shifting in a steamy haze a rain-forest in microcosm. And these were the kind of woods found on our island and indeed in Britain over eight thousand years ago."
The birds, of course, come into everything. The great Northern Diver which Cabot notices has "prolonged and mournful wailing", (is that also called The Loon?), Brent Geese, Razorbills, Swans and every bird you could think of from Goldfinches to the plain Robin.
And, of course, all the stone. Moher, rather than Liscannor she calls the slabs which most people know so well. Of drystone walls she writes that they too, as well as the rocks "are beautiful". and reckons that while there are 1,500 kilometres of them on the Aran Islands there must be at least twice that on the Burren.
Of birds on the sandy beaches, she makes a point about the curlew which digs deep with its curved beak. Did you know that the upper tip of the bird's bill is flexible and can open independently of the rest of the beak while deep in mud or sand "trapping small creatures like worms and insects". £7.99 plus £1 postage from the publisher. May also be in Easons and other shops.