Get festive Next month, from September 17th to 26th, the north-west is celebrating all things green with a week of eco-building, slow food, walks, craft workshops, talks, literature and music. You can take a poetry workshop with Cathal Ó Searcaigh, go on a seaweed or bat walk, chill out at an alternative health fair or spend a day at the Organic Centre Fair, in Co Leitrim. Highlights include a slow-food banquet, the Shelter conference on sustainable housing and the inauguration of the annual Common Ground lecture. You can get more details from www.theorganiccentre.ie.
Get into the groove
This year's Cork Jazz Festival, from October 22nd to 25th, plays host to 120 bands and 1,000 musicians from 32 countries. Big names include the Mingus Big Band, Hammond organist Jimmy Smith and the composer and performer Michael Brecker. Hip acts include Esther Miller, South Africa's queen of song. The Guinness Trail will offer rhythm and blues and roots music in more than 70 pubs around the city. Details from www.corkjazzfestival.com. ... Sarah Marriott
Last treats
Head for Surfing Blitz on Spanish Point beach, in Co Clare, this weekend. Designed for all the family, it features surfing and kite-surfing displays from Ireland's best riders, as well as a contest for beginners. There are also sandcastle-building, sand-sculpting and ocean-storytelling competitions. There'll be music in Miltown Malbay on Saturday and Sunday evenings, with a barbecue as well on Sunday. Call 065-7084149 or visit www.lahinchsurfschool.com. .. Madeleine Lyons
Watch out
The balmy south-west of Ireland has proved an ideal habitat for exotic trees and shrubs - and exotic insects have sometimes come with them. In recent years August has brought several sightings of charming, intriguing and quite harmless stick insects. Three species have established small colonies in these islands, in warm, humid places such as Cornwall and the Scilly Isles and around lush gardens on promontories in Kerry and Cork. They look like large, anorexic grasshoppers caught in the middle of their yoga exercises. - Michael Viney
Stars and gripes
Maurice Pratt, businessman
Best holiday
A snow safari in Finland with my boys in 1997. It's when you go out in a Skidoo and camp out in log cabins and tepees. We were inside the Arctic Circle, so it was 35 degrees below. The thing I remember most is the white-outs: I'd never experienced anything like it. You'd look around and see nothing but white.
Worst holiday
A trailer holiday to France and Italy my wife and I went on 25 years ago. On day one we were shunted by another car. In Pisa the smell of the campsite drove us out, in Rome the heat drove us out and in Venice we were attacked by ants. Because it was our honeymoon it wasn't a great omen, but 25 years later we're still together. - in conversation with Fiachra Ó Cionnaith
Get out
Where to go, what to see: For entertainment listings, see The Ticket, every Friday in The Irish Times, or go to www.ireland.com/ theticket
AugustDays pages conclude today. Life Features pages return on Monday
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