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.

Summer starts to relax in July.

The eager young lime-coloured leaves that filled the countryside last month have mellowed to a rich green, and the wheat and barley have started to turn golden,

rippled silver by lazy breezes.

Butterflies flit and mowers were, and we start to believe it will always be this way.

There are plenty of thunderstorms in July to mess with our idea of what summer should be,

but often they will follow spells of warmth, fat droplets on dusty

pavements, and bring with them the vibrant fragrance of wet earth after dry heat, an ozone-scented

sigh of relief. July was named to honour Julius Caesar, it being his birth month, and before him it was known as Quintillus, Latin for fifth,

as this was the fifth month in the Roman calendar.

More expressively, the Anglo-Saxons called it

Weed Monath, the month of weeds,

or hay monath, as this is hay-making time.

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