Welcome to the Fern podcast as the season turns.

Released on the first of each month, the episodes follow the changing landscape of the seasons,

from the moon and the stars to the tides in the trees.

I'm Leah Lain-Dirtz, author of The Almanac, a seasonal guide,

and this podcast is a collaboration between myself and Fern,

makers of small batch organic perfume.

I love wearing Fern, in my quest to live in tune with the seasons.

Applying the season's perfume is a lovely little

ritual that reminds me to use all my senses. 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.

Morning mists lie across the landscape, accompanied by mellowing leaves and the scent of softening earth.

Everything is giving up, triggered by the light,

which fades and shortens daily.

Autumn is settling and pulling the world down into itself.

Leaves cut off by the cold from their supply of green-giving chlorophyll begin to flash their

reds, yellows and golds before they tumble. There is faint wood smoke on the cool air and the treasure hunt is on. The fork is

pushed in. The earth levered up and the hidden harvest reveals itself among the startled and

squirming worms. Potatoes are laid out on the ground like a catch of the day. Chips, fried and scented with vinegar or mash made creamy with full fat milk and topped with a pool of butter.

Pumpkins and squashes also lie in the autumn sun of crisp blue sky days,

and their deeply burnished orange, green, yellow and blue-grey skins,

echoing the leaves harden to preserve the marigold insides deep into winter.

There is the crinkled blue-black of Cavaloneiro still standing proud,

...