Welcome to as the season turns, the podcast following each month of the year, as the

hedgerows change, the full moons come and go, and nature takes its course in the

garden. I'm Leila Lander, as a nature writer and author of the Almanac, a seasonal guide. This

podcast is brought to you by Fern, makers of small batch organic natural perfume, who blend,

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

We hope that this brief guide to what to look for in the month ahead will awaken you to the rhythms of the year and help you, in the words of the poet Ray Carver, settle deeper into the seasons.

It's January.

It's cold, but I'm here in Somerset,

and the sun is shining, the sky is blue.

It's really rather a lovely day.

This podcast is all about the turning of the seasons and the changes we see month to month in the world around us.

But of course, we have to start with January, and it's a tough one.

January can seem kind of grim, and it's not a month I look forward to.

But actually, now that it's here, I realize it always brings with it a kind of sense of relief.

I do love Christmas and all its coziness and fun, but it is a lot of work. And I reached January and suddenly there's this

lovely feeling of space. Projects that were put on the back burner for the juggernaut that

is Christmas can now be brought back out. And there's this feeling of a clean slate and of

getting time back to myself after looking after other people. It's also possibly the month in which

are most likely to take proper walks. I always think I love someone more, and let's be honest,

it's much easier to love. But somehow I end up getting out into the countryside so much more in January

than at any other time. I've come to really love the countryside in winter, the bare brown

earth, the fuzz of muted purple in the younger branches of the trees, the inky black

...