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For Lyssa, on the other side of the world, where the sun is also sinking down, and the moon slowly rising...
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CONTENTS

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Acknowledgements

About the Author & Illustrator

Index

Supporters

Copyright

January

1 New Year’s Day (bank holiday)

2 2nd January (local holiday, Scotland)

6 Epiphany/Twelfth Night

13 Lohri – Punjabi midwinter festival

17 Wassail/old Twelfth Night

25 Burns Night

31 Tu BiShvat – Jewish New Year of the Trees

January is named after the Latin for door, ianua, being the opening onto the year. Neatly, doors feature heavily in New Year’s celebrations. Traditionally, doors were flung open at midnight to let the old year out, saucepans banging to scare it away. The first person through your door after midnight sets the tone for the rest of your year: ideally your ‘first footer’ should be a tall, dark-haired man, bringing coal (for warmth), salt or money (riches), or bread and wine (plenty). Take nothing out of the door on New Year’s Day, not even last night’s bottles.

In January we often only step out through the door ourselves after ten minutes of dedicated cladding with wool and Gore-Tex, as the wind is keen and cutting, circling unscarfed necks and needling into the foolish gaps between tops and bottoms. Although midwinter falls in December, the warmth trapped in the land and the sea creates a lag, and the full chill of our tilt away from the sun and towards cold, dark space is only felt now.

But it is still worth getting out. The countryside has a bare beauty, all bones and hazes of purple and ochre in the low winter light, every last shred of green leaf having finally dropped. And once chilled to the bone, there will be log fires and marmalade-making and cosy puddings, back behind your own firmly closed front door.

THE SKY

Moon phases

In the night sky this month

Constellation of the month – Orion

Orion is one of the most recognisable constellations, and beautifully visible in the winter sky. Look directly south at 10 p.m. in mid-January and it is around halfway between the horizon and the zenith, but it should not be hard to find at other times. Orion contains two of the ten brightest stars in the sky: Betelgeuse, a red supergiant in its top left-hand corner; and Rigel, a blue-white supergiant. When the sky is dark and clear, you will see a fuzzy ‘star’ a little below Orion’s belt. This is the great Orion Nebula, the nearest region of massive star formation to earth, and hence one of the most studied objects in the sky.

Moon rise and set

WEATHER

This is one of the two coldest months and the month in which we are most likely to see snow – ‘as the day lengthens, so the cold strengthens’. In the north and Scotland, polar lows can move in, frequently bringing snow and blizzards. Low temperatures elsewhere are mitigated by proximity to the sea: the coldest areas are the mountains of Wales and northern England, as well as inland Scotland; the warmest and most likely to escape snow and ice are the south-western coasts. There is likely to be frost and fog throughout the country. Rain is very likely, and this is one of the two wettest months of the year.

Day length

During the course of January, day length increases by:

Sunrise and set

THE SEA

Average sea temperature

Spring and neap tides

The spring tide is the most extreme tide of the month, with the highest rises and falls, and the neap tide is the least extreme, with the smallest. Exact timings vary around the coast, but expect each around the following dates:

Perigean tide

This month sees a relatively rare perigean spring tide, a particularly high tide caused by an alignment of moon and sun, coinciding with the moon being the closest it will swing towards the earth this month, on the 3rd–4th. To understand a perigean spring tide you need first to know your spring and neap tides. A spring tide occurs twice each month – a day or so after the moon is full and when it is new. At these moments, the earth, moon and sun have been almost perfectly aligned. The gravitational forces that the sun and moon exert on the earth’s body of water have combined, leading to a particularly high high tide and a particularly low low tide. The day or so’s delay is simply the time it takes for the pull to shift this huge body of water. When the moon is at its first quarter or third quarter it is at right angles to the line formed between the sun and earth, and therefore the sun and moon are pulling against each other. This results in much less dramatic tides with smaller rises and smaller falls: neap tides.

But there is a further factor at play: the elliptical orbit of the moon. The distance between the moon and the earth varies from 406,700 miles away to 356,500 miles away, and the closer it gets, the stronger the pull. The perigee is the moment the moon is closest to the earth each month, and this, of course, creates its own surge. Every month at some point the moon will move to its closest and furthest away, but it is only when the moon is at its closest and full that we get a supermoon, officially called a perigee full moon. This will happen this month on the 2nd, and within a day or two the pull on the earth’s water will create a particularly extreme tide, with high tides raised by up to 25 per cent, and low tides dropping much further than usual too. This creates a flood risk of course, particularly during bad weather. The low tide is a good time to go fossil hunting for newly uncovered finds, or to beachcomb for interesting flotsam.

THE GARDEN

Planting by the moon

Jobs in the garden

• Prune fruit trees and grape vines, to bring them back into shape.

• Force rhubarb clumps by covering them with a terracotta forcer or an upturned dustbin.

• Buy and chit (sprout on the windowsill) seed potatoes: the early bird gets the quirkiest varieties.

Glut of the month – swede

Brilliantly hardy, it grows sweeter and more complex the more winter throws at it.

• Bashed neeps: cube and boil until tender then mash with a near-excessive amount of butter, plenty of freshly ground black pepper, and salt. Serve with tatties and haggis at Burns Night on the 25th.

• Cornish pasties: sturdy shortcrust pastry (use strong white flour), beef skirt, waxy potatoes, swede and onion. Chop everything to the same size and bake for 20 minutes in a hot oven then 20 minutes in a medium oven.

• Swede with sausages and gravy: sauté swede slices in plenty of butter until slightly caramelised, then add a little stock, simmer until tender and roughly mash. Mound onto plate and serve with gravy and sausages.

Garden task – plant an apple tree

The cool and still inertia of the January garden can be turned to our advantage, most particularly when moving things that would rather not be moved. A tree that has dropped its leaves is in a state of deep sleep, and like gently lifting a baby from car seat to cot, there is an opportunity to make the move almost without a whimper, and certainly without a tantrum. This is the time to plant bare-root trees, lifted from the ground by canny nurserymen and transported with their roots wrapped in hessian, cheaper and available in greater variety than those grown in pots. Apples are often sold this way. Choose your variety and then find one grown on a suitable rootstock, which helps to determine the size to which the tree will eventually grow.

When the tree arrives, unwrap the roots and soak them in a bucket of water. Dig your hole, plant, backfill, firm down with a foot and then stake against rocking winds. Once in place, and despite the continuing cold, the roots will start to tentatively explore their new surroundings, and by the time the first bud unfurls, your tree roots will be all settled in and drinking up moisture, ready to make the most of spring, summer and autumn.

KITCHEN

In season

• Kale, kohlrabi, leeks, cabbage, cauliflower, carrot and swede are all still standing in the vegetable garden. Early varieties of purple sprouting broccoli start to produce this month.

• Some apples and pears are still good if they have been well stored, as are beetroots, garlic, onions, parsnips and squash.

• There is lots of wonderful imported citrus around, and this month blood oranges join in. There are also lots of imported pineapples, kiwis, passion fruits and pomegranates.

• Truffles – black truffles are still arriving from Italy.

• Hare, woodcock, pheasant and venison are available from some butchers. Duck and goose are in season until the end of the month.

Ingredient of the month – Seville oranges

Early in the month the Seville oranges arrive, a brief but glowing respite from the gloom. Bitter and thick-skinned, zesty and complex, they are far closer to their sour Chinese ancestors than are sweet citruses. Almost the entire Mediterranean’s crop is grown to be shipped to Britain, where in steaming kitchens over cups of tea and hours of Radio 4 it is transformed into bittersweet, golden orange marmalade to be spread onto thick toast. Buy them as soon as you see them and use them within the week: they are unwaxed and won’t last. Jane Grigson’s recipe uses 3¼ l water, 1½ kg oranges and 3 kg granulated sugar. Boil the oranges whole in the water for an hour and a half. Cool, halve, scoop out innards, and place them into a muslin, then squeeze this into the liquor before dropping it in with the chopped peel and the sugar. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring, then boil hard until a jam thermometer shows 105°c.

FESTIVITIES

Wassailing and Tu BiShvat: celebrating trees

January offers two festivities that celebrate trees and their crops. Both act as a reminder that summer and bounty will come again, and mark the start of the growing year, however unlikely that feels right now. Both also provide a perfect excuse to eat and drink by requiring the consumption of the crops they are celebrating, albeit in preserved form, as cider or as dried fruits.

Wassailing is an ancient custom of cider-producing regions of England, in which the wassail king or queen hangs pieces of cider-soaked toast in the branches of the most prominent or the oldest tree in an orchard, wassail songs are sung, cider is poured onto the roots, and favourable spirits are enticed towards the tree. ‘Wassail’ is also the name of the drink drunk on the day, and made by warming cider and apple juice with spices, sugar, oranges and lemons, and a dash of cider brandy. Finally, shots are fired through the branches, pots and pans are banged, and the evil spirits are warded off. A good harvest is hence guaranteed.

Tu BiShvat is a Jewish holiday that falls on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat, which this year means 31st January. It is also called Rosh Hashanah La’llanot, which translates as ‘New Year of the Trees’, and it has become a day of mass tree-planting in Israel. This moment marks the revival of the growing year after winter, and is the day from which the ages of trees are calculated to determine tithes. It is customary to eat dried tree fruits and nuts, or to make a feast featuring the seven species described in the Bible as being abundant in the land of Israel: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates.

RECIPES

Date, apricot and pecan sticky toffee pudding

Sticky toffee pudding: warm, comforting and packed with chopped dates. The addition of a couple more of the crops of the Middle East does it no harm at all.

Method

Preheat your oven to 180°c and butter a baking dish 24 cm x 24 cm. Make the sauce by putting all of the ingredients in a saucepan together with a pinch of salt, heating slowly until they combine, and then boiling for a few minutes until the sauce thickens. Pour half of the sauce into the base of the dish and refrigerate while you make the pudding mix.

Put dates, apricots and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl and pour on the boiling water. Leave to soak and soften while you make the rest of the pudding. Cream the butter and sugar and then beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in flour, baking powder and cloves, the fruit and its water, and the pecans. Stir well. Pour the batter onto the top of the sauce in the baking dish and bake for around 30 minutes, then remove from the oven, tip on the rest of the sauce, and grill under a medium grill until the sauce bubbles. Serve with ice cream or cream.

NATURE

Look out for:

• The first shoots of bulbs, proving that the season is turning under our feet.

• Hazel tree catkins start to appear. These are the hazel’s male sexual organs and will disperse pollen while the tree is bare and there are no leaves to hinder it. Look also for the tiny, red female flowers on the stems, ready to catch it.

• Hellebores, which are called Christmas roses but rarely do anything at Christmas, start to flower now. Float a couple of flowers in a bowl of water to appreciate their intricacies.

Migrations

The winter thrushes: fieldfares and redwings.

These birds migrated to the UK from their northern European breeding grounds in September and October, searching for milder weather and more abundant food, but January often sees a micro-migration as cold weather drives them into towns and gardens. Normally they spend their days in arable fields and scrub and at the edges of woodlands, always travelling as a flock. But when the going gets cold, you may suddenly spot ten or twelve unfamiliar birds in a garden tree or picking over your cotoneaster. Fieldfares are large birds, the size of a blackbird, with a white underwing. Redwings are smaller, with an overall reddish-brown appearance and a red underwing. They like berries and love apples, so throw one onto the lawn when you are out feeding the rest of the birds.

Tracks in snow

February

1 Imbolc (pagan celebration)

1 St Brigid’s/St Bride’s Day

2 Candlemas

13 Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day)

14 Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent

14 St Valentine’s Day

16 Chinese New Year, year of the Earth Dog begins

February is an ascetic little month. Cold, short and dark, many of its rituals – Imbolc, Candlemas, Lent – revolve around absence, purging and fasting. Its birthstone, amethyst, symbolises piety and humility. Even the name February comes from februum, Latin for purification, the root – februo – meaning ‘I purify by sacrifice’. Fun old February. Because of its short length it is the only month that can pass without a full moon, and this year it does exactly this, so even the long nights are not lit up by the sparkling full winter moon. In all of this it can feel like a month of self-denial and of suspension of activity, a time to tuck up indoors and wait for warmer days, a pause for contemplation before the hustle and renewal of the next few months.

But look and you will see sure signs that nothing stands still, even – or perhaps especially – in February. In the far north of the country the day lengthens by a full two hours by the end of the month, and everywhere there are little signs of life returning, unable to resist the turning of the year even when breath is cloudy and ground solid. And as light returns so does the urge to sow and to grow, to start off the year’s cycles, and to engage with the still-weak but strengthening sun. The temptation to hibernate may still be strong, but by the end of the month a spring-like hopefulness starts to win out.

THE SKY

Moon phases

In the night sky this month

There will be no full moon this month, but there were two in January and will be two in March.

Constellation of the month – Canis Major

Follow the line of Orion’s belt from the furthest right star to the furthest left star and then beyond, and you will reach Sirius, the Dog Star, the brightest star in the sky. It lies in the constellation of Canis Major, the Great Dog, and is a major constellation in the southern hemisphere, but from December to March it can be seen in the northern hemisphere too, close to the southern horizon. Together with the Little Dog, Canis Minor, it chases Orion, the hunter, through the sky. Sirius is in fact a binary star, or two stars orbiting around a common point. The largest of the two, Sirius A, is twice the size of the sun and 25 times as bright. Sirius’s brightness is also down to its proximity: at 8.6 light years away it is considered one of our near neighbours.

Moon rise and set

WEATHER

The lengthening of days creates a huge sense of hope this month, and we gain nearly two hours of daylight by the end of it. But warmth does not match light, and this can be one of the very coldest months – minimum temperatures are often even lower than January’s. The North Atlantic reaches its lowest temperature, and so negates the ameliorating effects of the Gulf Stream. Meanwhile, frequent easterly winds rush in from Siberia and chill to the bone.

Day length

During the course of February, day length increases by:

Sunrise and set

THE SEA

Average sea temperature