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.

If you want a resolution to stick, make it in September.

There is a new broom feel about September, a sense that it is time to stop mucking about

and to get down to business.

There is historical precedent for this feeling, a sort of administrative shaking down that

came with the completion of the harvest, and with the ending of long warm days and the advent

of colder, darker ones.

If summer must end, and if we must go back to school, let's do so with crisp white shirts,

polished shoes, a brand new pencil case,

and some serious good intentions.

The Anglo-Saxons called September Haligmona,

holy month,

or the month of offerings to give thanks for the harvest.

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