Welcome to As the Season Turns, a 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.

So here we are at June, the zenith of the year, all strawberries, roses, rain showers and sunburnt shoulders.

June is the lightest and brightest month of the year with the longest days and shortest nights.

It's not necessarily the warmest, but it's pretty good.

June is so easy to love, but it's also kind of easy to miss.

For me, June always comes a little too soon.

I know that sounds crazy, but I'm never quite ready for mid-summer when June comes along. I'm only just really accepting that it's okay to go outside without a cardi.

But this is all the more reason to treat the beginning of June as a wake-up call. Summer is here,

so think about what you're going to do with it. Throw a barbecue, sit by a river with a

picnic, lie on the lawn and watch the swift swoop overhead, or even just sniff the roses

and love that they are here. We've been waiting for this all year, so take some time to really

appreciate this very special moment in the year.

The naming of June.

Ogfios in Scots Gaelic.

June in Scots or Ulster Scots.

Mehev in Irish Gaelic. Meen sauri in Manx. Mehevin in Irish Gaelic Meyn sauri in Manx

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