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.

It is March and spring is really happening now.

Summer visiting birds begin to return.

Bumblebees are tentatively buzzing.

The ground can be cultivated.

Yellow is the colour of March, bright daffodils, winter aconites, primroses, lemon-toned brimstone butterflies and bright spring sunshine,

at least in between the showers and the gales. March was once a pivotal moment in the year. In the Roman

calendar, March, or Martius, was the first month, and in Britain the 25th of March, Lady Day,

remained the beginning of the legal year until 1752. Some old land tenancies still run from

Lady Day to Lady Day. The month was named after Mars, the god of war and, less famously,

the guardian of agriculture. March was considered the month

when both farming and warfare could begin, because no one wants to be out crusading in the snow.

Anglo-Saxon names for March included Chlidmona, meaning stormy month, and Heredmona, meaning

rugged month, both of which give a good flavor

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