After being housebound during the snow I was on the road again last week for a couple of pleasant outings that put a smile on my face.

My first outing was to Co Wexford and a visit to Orla and Paul Woods who own Kilmurry Nursery near Inch.

The snow was still deep and dangerous, and they were busy clearing up following the collapse of several of their grow tunnels under the weight of snow.

Luckily they were dealing with polythene and not glass, as in the latter case the plants underneath the collapse would have been unsaleable due to glass shards.

The up-shot of the bad weather is that they have nowhere to move plants onto, as the growing cycle progresses.

So they have had no choice but to cancel designers who had booked them to grow their plants for Bloom.

Now if that had happened to me I‘d be in an awful state, but it didn’t appear to knock a feather out of Orla and Paul, who were cheerfully putting everything back together again.

You can read more about them and their advice on suitable planting for an herbaceous border in the April issue of Irish Country Magazine, which goes on sale at the end of this week.

On Friday I found myself at CAFRE and the Loughry campus, just outside Cookstown in Co Tyrone, where I was one of the judges of the Northern Irish Angus Schools competition.

What a positive way of engaging young people in the journey that is food production.

Eleven teams reached the finals and their interest, enthusiasm and knowledge of beef production and agriculture in general was commendable.

And it wasn’t just the 11 teams who got the message. They had organised in-school tastings, worked with home economics and business classes and even engaged with the general public.

Initiatives such as these are great and help young people interested in farming, food production and modern-day farming methods challenge the sensationalist charges of militant vegans.

This week I am judging the Certified Irish Angus Beef Schools competition, which takes place in Croke Park, and I’m looking forward to another dose of positivity, energy and enthusiasm from the students.

I made my way to Cookstown via the M1, Armagh and Dungannon, but I travelled home by an entirely different route.

My journey took in the towns of Aughnacloy, Emyvale, Clones, Butlersbridge and Cavan.

Now I couldn’t tell you if the sat nav on my phone was sending me on a wild goose chase or not, but every few miles or so I appeared to be crossing the border seamlessly between north and south.

It was a real eye-opener as to the huge difficulties that will arise in the event of a hard Brexit.

It would be appalling if all those minor roads had checkpoints, but other than blocking many of them I can’t see how else the border could be controlled.

I’d hate to think of the time wasted and the inconvenience this would cause to people with long detours all over the place.

Finally, get your entries in for the Women & Agriculture Awards, of which there is more on pages 9 and 11. Have a lovely St Patrick’s Day.

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