The Irish honeybee Apis mellifera mellifera is Ireland's only native honeybee, it's a bee with a dark abdomen and is also known as the European dark bee.

Seen here in late February, just before the end of winter meteorologically-speaking or at the start of Irish spring, this honeybee has been extraordinarily busy collecting nectar and pollen on a bright afternoon just before stormy weather hits.

This week saw an amazing amount of precipitation, particularly over the southwest of Ireland, Munster, where Cork and Clonmel saw extensive flooding. This part of Ireland has already seen above average rainfall for February and recent days have only added to the totals.

Ireland is a green country, except when it snows and even in winter (February in the image above) that green still shows in the fields and woodlands of the Irish countryside.

Here, in a fine little woodland of beech, ash and oak a cascading stream flows over rocks as the low rays of the winter sun brightens riparian scene of mosses, ferns and fallen leaves.

Photography in Ireland isn't just a summer interest, the country has many beautiful scenes to capture throughout the year.

We have had a lot of snow so far this year but not all winter days in the Irish mountains are white with deep drifts, here in the Wicklow Mountains deer stop on the frosty-white uplands.

A brief moment of calm before they bound and leap across the terrain deeply cut from centuries of peat or turf cutting.

Herds of deer do roam throughout Ireland, particularly in the mountains such as Wicklow where there is an extensive upland with little human habitation and agriculture.

It's still winter for now, just for a day as according to Irish tradition the 1st of February sees the start of spring on Saint Brigid's Day.

Ireland has had some snow, as in the image above, this winter but not as much as Britain. This is usual, Ireland typically receives less extreme weather than Britain where there has been much more snow in recent weeks.

From a journey in the mountains, snowy paths and pine trees covered in a light dusting on a calm day close to sunset.

Winter is of course a fine time to photograph in Ireland.

Panoramic Ireland's award-winning Dublin Photo Tours are still, for the moment, unavailable for booking but will be back sometime this year when the easing of Coronavirus restrictions allows.

At the moment restrictions are not planned to be eased until March 5th 2021 but this may change and easing of restrictions will most definitely will not be quick and full for some time.

For the moment, instead of a private photography workshop in Dublin, why not take a private photography online workshop to discuss and improve your image-making skills and post-processing techniques.

When you go to any of the usual booking sections of the site such as for Dublin, Antrim Coast and Dingle you will see the dates blanked out until 5th of March 2021. For the online tutorial any date and any time of day is available, if you would prefer to ask some questions beforehand please send me an email or contact me on the form at the Contact page.

It doesn't snow that often in Ireland, but it does snow more often than you think, particularly in the meteorological winter months of December, January and February.

The middle of January 2021 has seen some snow falling over much of Ireland but accumulations have been small; lasting, as snow typically does in Ireland, for only a few days at upper elevations and for only a few hours closer to sea level.

The upper slopes of this hill are more snowy than those towards the bottom, the triangle field here as much green as it is white.

It is likely that we will see more snow in 2021 but for the moment warmer weather is on the way.

Ireland is currently on a Level 5 lockdown due to the COVID-19 / Coronavirus pandemic, the country had one of the best - lowest - rates of infection in Europe until recent weeks where we unfortunately saw the 14-day incidence rate become the highest in the world.

Now as Ireland grapples to try and reduce one of the world's highest 14-day incidence rates of Coronavirus infections, it would seem that travel will not be similar to what we call normal until late summer, most likely autumn, of 2021 but let's follow the path towards the rainbow.

They say you'll find gold at the end of a rainbow, that certainly hasn't literally happened to me but there is visual gold in rainbows. Here a faint double rainbow is visible to the right of the image.

Patience and optimism is a key attribute in any photographic endeavour, particularly in landscape photography.

And for that reason, Panoramic Ireland are taking no-deposit required, freely cancellable bookings for 2021 and 2022 - private tours and workshops in Ireland.

'How now brown cow' goes the old saying which is often used in elocution, it's also a phrase often asked of us who come from Northern Ireland.

Most from the other corners of Ireland find how northeners pronounce the 'ow' sound to be funny.

Of course, there are many different Northern Irish accents but this one remains a favourite.

While spring traditionally begins in Ireland on the 1st of February, on Saint Brigid's Day, meteorological winter continues through until the 1st of March.

We have had some snow already in 2021 here in Ireland but most has now melted with warmer and wetter temperatures returning. In fact we had a 14C temperature change in 48 hours from -7 degrees Celsius to +7 degrees.

Typically we would see about a week of snow in the southwest, the warmest and wettest part of Ireland, to three weeks in the higher ground of the Wicklow Mountains and north midlands of Ireland. Away from the west coast essentially.

Rural lanes in Ireland or Green Roads are remnants of old, sometimes ancient, paths through the countryside. Here on a fine winter's day I headed into the green and colourful landscape to view the mountains under the blue sky.

Ireland has had some cold nights recently in January 2021, winter is well and truly here but for now milder conditions have returned and little remains of the snow even at higher altitudes.

I have written about green roads before, here.

The low, setting sun slips below the ridge and at this time only illuminates the higher slopes of the mountains ahead.