Welcome to the Fern podcast as the season turns.

Released on the first of the month, each episode will be following the changing landscape of the seasons.

From the moon and the stars to the tides and the trees.

I'm Leah Lainters, author of The Almanac, a seasonal guide,

and this podcast is created by Fern, makers of small batch organic perfume, who blend, barrel

age and bottle four fragrances a year, released at the equinoxes and solstices.

We hope that this brief guide to the month ahead will awaken you to the rhythms of the year

and help you to settle deeper into the seasons.

December takes us full circle, down into the depths of the year, and then up and out the other side.

The dark triumphs, but briefly.

This month there are yet more festivals of light and battles of fire and darkness, Hanukkah, Yule, and the big one, at least in Britain, Christmas.

Before it was Christmas Day, the 25th of December was celebrated as the birth date of Sol Invictus, the Roman god of the sun.

And it is thought possible that the date was chosen to underline Christ's role as bringer of hope and light.

Just as the longest day at midsummer brought a sense of foreboding, the longest night brings with it great optimism.

We feast and light fires, lanterns and candles to ward off the dark,

and it works. By the end of December the gloomiest days are behind us.

Landscapes and gardens are all bones now, with just little tufts of leaves clinging to the ends of branches, the last produced of the

year, determined to have their allotted time. When sunlight comes, it is weak and lemony, and the

countryside is a watercolour wash of flax, buff and beige, with occasional ink crows and telephone

lines. Deep frost shadows can linger

for days behind tall hedges and hedgerows, the sun never threatening them. The days may be short

and cold, but the night is long and beautiful now, with the moon at its highest and clearest, and the stars showing at their brightest.

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