Country mouse on a visit to Ireland
Rupert finds himself grateful to an Irish bus driver who rescues his family from a soaking on a visit to Ireland


You have to love Ireland. After a trip to Phoenix Park, we needed to head back into the centre of Dublin, but there was not a taxi to be seen and the rain was steady. The driver of a double-decker bus gestured enquiringly and acknowledged our enthusiastic nodding by stopping in the middle of roadworks to pick us up. He thought it didn't matter that our weekly tram tickets were rendered invalid by his machine and told us not to worry.
After an exciting tour of the suburbs, he deposited us very close to where we were staying. Back in England, the rain we had thought of as very Irish continued all week, and became not only very English, but southern.
A lawn that was as brown as a scone is now greener than a shamrock. We are mowing again after a couple of months off. All this water should help those with livestock, who had been feeding their animals on supplies meant for the winter.
One of our menagerie has moved on, not for reasons of food shortage, but because her jockey has upgraded to a bigger (but naughtier) version. Kitty, our 28-year-old Shetland, not much larger than a St Bernard, has gone to what must be at least her 10th family. We have retained visiting rights. It's what the Irish would do.
Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.
-
A woolly mammoth skeleton is among the curiosities for sale to save fire-ravaged Parnham Park
The auction of the owner James Perkins' collection, hosted by Dreweatts, tomorrow (May 13), will be used to fund renovation works at Parnham Park in Dorset.
-
The ‘utterly unique’ skincare brand that’s used in the ‘world’s best hotel’ spa
The Seed to Skin brand was the byproduct of one woman’s length fertility journey — it’s so good that today it’s used in a hotel voted the ‘world’s best’.