The annual series of courses run by Roger and Olivia Goodwillie in Kilkenny's Lavistown House is as idiosyncratic and tempting as ever.
In addition to cooking and gardening courses, such as Dolores Keegan and Olivia on growing and cooking with herbs and Roger's celebrated hunts for mushrooms, and garden courses such as Gabrielle Sanio on garden design or Pat Fitzgerald on plant propagation, there are courses on basket-making, timber, garden design, bird song, landscape and flower painting and even a course on discovering bats.
Accommodation is offered in the house during the courses, and the intellectual discipline of the Goodwillies, not to mention that they produce most of their own food, makes these courses special.
Lavistown House Weekend Courses, Kilkenny, Co Kilkenny. Tel: 056-65145.
courses@lavistownhouse.ie www.lavistownhouse.ie