Feb 24-28
Rainwater - mist starts to linger
Crocuses emerge from damp soil

Hail followed by sun followed by hail. Repeat.
Standing water in the fields
Hazel catkins fading, snowdrops open, crocus opening, daffodils budding
Blackbirds mating and dipper courting
Mist in the valleys
Early morning sun on frosty fields
Ash buds beginning to open.
Tawny owl hooting in the evenings




(Based on 'Light Rains Sometimes Fall' by Lev Parikian. Used with permission - thank you)

Feb 19-23
Rainwater - rain moistens the soil
Woodpeckers start drumming

Testing positive for covid means that this has been limited to the view from the window…


Evening sun on a robin's breast
Feeders toppled in the wind
Long tailed tits queuing up in the bush
Long tailed tits avoiding the cat
Snow, wind and rain
Three squirrels keep guard whilst one eats the peanuts
Squirrel sitting atop the feeder, tail in the wind like a weather vane




(Based on 'Light Rains Sometimes Fall' by Lev Parikian. Used with permission - thank you)

Feb 14-18

The beginning of spring - fish emerge from the ice
Rain sometimes turns to hail


Blackbird serenades the walk to work
Rivers where roads should be
Sunshine after the rain
Stray cat in the garden keeping the bird numbers down
Crocus heads open, first hint of daffodils
Mr and Mrs Blackbird flirting in the bush
Snow!


(Based on 'Light Rains Sometimes Fall' by Lev Parikian. Used with permission - thank you)

Feb 9-13
The beginning of spring - bush warblers start singing in the mountains
Dunnock song defies traffic noise.


First sign of crocus
More hail
Wind ringing through wires, crows struggle to get airborne
Streams where paths should be
Blackbird in tree on the way out, robin on the way home.
Peregrine pair on the mill chimney
Six jackdaws and two magpies dominate the garden



(Based on 'Light Rains Sometimes Fall' by Lev Parikian. Used with permission - thank you)

Feb 4-8
The beginning of spring - east wind melts ice.
Clear light shines through mist


Hailstones sting cheeks, rain batters windows, frost on windscreen
First snowdrops open
Kingfisher files upriver, fast and straight
First black-headed gulls have their summer hood.
Driving to work in daylight
Song thrush and goldfinch sit adjacent on a telegraph wire.




(Based on 'Light Rains Sometimes Fall' by Lev Parikian. Used with permission - thank you)

I was given a copy of Lev Parikian's book 'Light Rains Sometimes Fall' for Christmas. Lev has taken the 72 micro seasons of the Japanese year and applied them to the British year. As the project started in early February and the country went into covid-lockdown in the March, it rapidly became the British year as viewed from his area of South London during a pandemic.

The 72 microseasons are explained well here, but in brief Japan is said to have four main seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
It is also said to have a 24 season calendar, based on the sun's journey through the zodiac divided into 15-degree sections each of 15 days. Each of these can then be subdivided into 3 giving 72 micro seasons, each of 5 days.

Lev finished his book with a reflection on the value of observation, observation of the small things, of the usual things, of the transitory nature of things. So this year I intend to follow his lead and observe, mainly my local environment, in five day sections.

I will begin each section with the traditional Japanese season headings and with the ones Lev gave to his microseasons. I'll then give some (very) brief observations, which may or may not relate to the headings depending on what is seen.

Here goes…