Over the next 24 pages, BSME Columnist of the Year and award-winning nature writer John Lewis-Stempel charts the changing year and we offer ways to enhance such pleasure in simple things
![The Four Seasons](https://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/5168/201537/5863756dac87c/The-Four-Seasons.jpg)
‘The blush of Spring, the blossom of Summer, the flame of Autumn, the sparkle of Winter, and the violet-softened refulgence of every waking moment yield a never failing succession of delights’ Horace Fletcher in Menticulture
‘The seasons are what a symphony ought to be: four perfect movements in harmony with each other’ Arthur Rubinstein
‘Look to the seasons when choosing your cures’ Hippocrates
‘Nature bestows her own, richest gifts/ And, with lavish hands, she works in shifts’ Gertrude Tooley Buckingham in The Four Seasons
Riot of spring
Lambs gambol as ascending daylight warms their greening fields and the cuckoo calls in woodlands carpeted with dewy daffodils, bluebells and sorrel
SPRING sets in with its accustomed severity’: so goes the old country witticism. The shepherd on the black Welsh mountain and the ploughman on the open field of norfolk know from bitter-cold experience that the equinox, on March 21 or thereabouts, is a hasty human date for the official start of spring. Ask the shivery crews of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat race if March blusters and freezes—they will tell you.
And is that blossom on the blackthorn or snow? nonetheless, winter is now in its death throes. The ice age is over. How does nature announce the arrival of spring? Let me count the ways, but, slowly, because, at first, they come singly and separately. The crocus flowers. Woodpeckers drum on telegraph poles. Queen bees emerge from their burrows. The tiny chiffchaff arrives from Africa. George Orwell, an unacknowledged naturalist, considered the clinching evidence for spring’s arrival to be toads spawning.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 28 2016 من Country Life UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 28 2016 من Country Life UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
![All dolled up](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/5168/1821361/z0qO9cqPe1725519375804/ALL-DOLLED-UP.jpg)
All dolled up
Automata made in 19th-century France provided inspiration for the work of American artist Thomas Kuntz and a vintage dolls' house, furnished with period-appropriate pieces, stars in a charity auction
![Just keep walking](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/5168/1821361/gYyLCnwWN1725519285733/JUST-KEEP-WALKING.jpg)
Just keep walking
ALMOST 30 years ago, a chap called Ian Bleasdale wrote a guide detailing all the walks on the Greek Island of Paxos. He and his wife, Elizabeth, had fallen for the island's rugged charms and, after many visits tramping its networks of old paths, decided to share their knowledge with like-minded souls.
![Delicious drupes](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/5168/1821361/sz2hkv0gp1725518713209/DELICIOUS-DRUPES.jpg)
Delicious drupes
THERE is a peculiar magic in growing almonds. However often you see their soul-lifting, frost-risking flush of white blossom and however often you collect a basket of homegrown almonds, it's hard to lose the sense of glorious impossibility, that somehow you've cheated geography and climate.
![It started with a blank canvas](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/5168/1821361/KuCtx5ORv1725518420708/IT-STARTED-WITH-A-BLANK-CANVAS.jpg)
It started with a blank canvas
The garden of Patthana, Co Wicklow, Ireland The home of T. J. Maher and Simon Kirby An exquisite small garden is rich in colour and texture and has been imaginatively extended, as you would expect of a painter's domain, reports Jane Powers
![Escape to 'God's own country"](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/5168/1821361/wk_FqN-wX1725518299284/ESCAPE-TO-GODS-OWN-COUNTRY.jpg)
Escape to 'God's own country"
Yorkshire folk are rightly proud of their county's magnificent landscapes and rich architectural heritage, but incomers looking to settle there face strong competition from local contenders for picture-perfect country houses
![By the light of the harvest moon](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/5168/1821361/9UA3xGmDG1725518139805/BY-THE-LIGHT-OF-THE-HARVEST-MOON.jpg)
By the light of the harvest moon
As autumn's whisper reminds farmers to reap their crops, inspect your produce for a suggestion of the winter to come, says Lia Leendertz
![Building blocks](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/5168/1821361/PSy_Iosqh1725518000694/BUILDING-BLOCKS.jpg)
Building blocks
We can expect fireworks: Labour’s draft plans for a new planning policy contain subtle, but devastating amendments that bear closer inspection
![Friends in low places](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/5168/1821361/XP8vF-q7m1725517730865/FRIENDS-IN-LOW-PLACES.jpg)
Friends in low places
As special as orchids, as beautiful as bluebells and as important as oaks, our ground-hugging mosses are worth a look down, says Mark Cocker
![Talk of the ton](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/5168/1821361/1_rrwq4-U1725516739928/TALK-OF-THE-TON.jpg)
Talk of the ton
During the golden age of gossip, the fashion choices of the Regency elite were frequently the scintillating subject of the scandal sheets, finds Susan Jenkins
![Slopes of hazard](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/5168/1821361/SDWG176WA1725516537249/SLOPES-OF-HAZARD.jpg)
Slopes of hazard
Skiing, ironically, is the safest thing you can do in St Moritz, says Rosie Paterson, who traces the Swiss resort's love affair with adrenaline-pumping winter sports back to a Victorian bet