Welcome to the Fern podcast as the season turns.

I'm Leah Lainterts, and in this special episode,

we've commissioned the writer Max Porter to pen his own abroarious homage to spring.

I hope it helps you to settle deeper into the season.

Hello, I'm Max Porter, and we're in the woods, in Smolkham Woods near Bath, and it's springtime.

And you can maybe hear my dog happy, pootling around near us.

I'm going to read the first draft I ever wrote of the Peace for Spring campaign by Fern, which ended up being this wild land.

I'm so in love. I'm so in love with this little bit of me. This rampant brand new wilderness sprung from the guts of my ancient machinery.

Honestly, would you look at this?

Look at this.

Under the surface, something is turning, future seasons, incoming lust, luck and yearning.

You have never comprehended a workload as lovely as mine.

There's a billion living things in a single gram of my soil, and I know

them all. Knowledge of self, faith, health. I'm a master architect. I'm a distinguished old lady.

I've been poisoned, ignored, nurtured, adored, but if you leave me alone, I solemnly promise to work

like a dream. Look at my beautiful worms.

Appreciate these storks.

Look at my little minnows, my aphids, my crickets and mayflies.

Look at my big, healthy buzzard lads

shrieking into their spiral flying displays,

showing off my sexual clockwork,

showing off my safety and my trust.

...