January In Duhallow

January leaves it's mark in old Duhallow from overnight frost the bare fields looking gray

In the farmyard sheds in the cold of early morning the cattle are bellowing for silage or hay

From recent heavy rain the Blackwater bank high with a loud babble through north Cork does flow

In Duhallow in the wet and cold depths of Winter the wind with a harsh breath from the mountains blow

The migratory brown mottled birds known as redwing thrushes chirping on bare deciduous trees

On another wintery January day in Duhallow with a weather temperature high of a cold three degrees

Carrying in the cold wind the cawing of the hungry corvids the jackdaw, the rook and the silver backed crow

Duhallow is at it's coldest in mid January when the mountains are wearing their white hats of snow

Small birds in backyards by back doors devouring scraps of food thrown out by the housewife of  meat and bread

In the depths of Winter they always feel hungry and more cold and wet weather of them ahead

In January in Duhallow you will not hear birdsong it is quite a cold and a wet time of year

The gales from the mountains soughing loudly in bare trees is something that one does regularly hear

January in Duhallow weatherwise is not pleasant five weeks at least from the milder breath of Spring

When the deciduous trees will be sprouting new leaves and the eartly nesting birds will commence for to sing.