Call it the luck of the Irish that my ancestors didn't face a Christmas Island welcome

THE wild, beautiful and windswept County Donegal, in the remote north-west of Ireland, is a long way from the wild, beautiful and windswept south-west corner of Victoria, Australia, but it never seemed so to our family.

Celestial steel

Under the eye of an angel, Richard Jinman finds new life to match the Geordie warmth of Newcastle.

Column 8

Lord Ross, of Scone, has brought a somewhat more sinister symptom of the early spring to our attention (jasmine, blowflies, etc, Column 8 all week). He puts it quite simply: "It's July, and the brown snakes are already out." Derek Hulme, of Kirrawee High School, paints with a broader brush and issues a more general warning, writing that, "Today while riding my bicycle at Loftus I was dive-bombed by a magpie. This in itself is not unusual as it has happened many times before in the spring, but in July I thought this a rare occurrence. Is it the first sign of spring?" Mayhap. We've also had calls about the first bluebottles on the beaches. These are indeed signs of a creeping menace and a wider malaise.