This, for me, is the month of darkness that even the twinkliest of lights and brightest of candles cannot completely dispel. As the shortest day looms large I grab every moment I can get in the light and revel in the bite of the wind even as I slip and slide on wet leaves and … More A Year in the Woods: December
The leaves are now falling, the paths carpeted in lush russets and yellows. It is the time of year I find myself playing “leaf or fungi” as I approach fallen trees and see, from too far away to see detail, spots of paler colours dotted across their bark. Mostly the splotches are leaves but every … More A Year in the Woods: November
The leaves are turning and falling and the prevailing sense of the wood is damp and dense and darkening. The squirrels glut themselves on the first of the falling nuts, the mushrooms begin to appear, and the streams and mill pond swell with the autumn rains. Just past the equinox when the shortness of the … More A Year in the Woods: October
June is the month where I see quite a lot of 4 o’clock in the morning thanks to a body which really likes waking up with the sun. Not that I’m complaining since it means that I pretty much get the woods to myself and, if I’m quiet, see the young rabbits and foxes and … More A Year in the Woods: June
I know that May is supposed to be the beginning of summer but to me it is the pinnacle of spring. This is the month where the trees don their gowns of blossom to dance with the breeze and the meadows fill with flowers. It is the month of bees, birdsong, and the bright joy … More A Year in the Woods: May
April is my favourite month of the year and not just because it is my birthday month. It’s because this is the month when spring is properly sprung and the mix of flowers and the greenness of the new budding leaves is lush enough to drown in, should you be so inclined to do so. … More A Year in the Woods: April
This the month when I start to feel human again after the long grey of winter. The life in the soil is bubbling up everywhere, pushing at my feet, opening me up in much the same way it unfurls the petals of newly opening wildflowers. The air is redolent with the early pollen of the … More A Year in the Woods: March
This is the month when the bones of the wood become visible. The autumn colours have been washed away and the cold has withered all but the hardiest of the plants. Patches of holly and other evergreens provide the bright spots in the otherwise muted browns and greys that winter has painted over the wood. … More A Year in the Woods: January
Kizzia Mildmay 