Mud Month, in old English, Solmonað. Solmonað , the Old English name for February. Pronounced SOHL-mo-nath (soft “th” as in that). Think of it as the Sun’s month, the time when winter still lingers but the days start slowly lengthening. The Anglo Saxons had a knack for calling things exactly what they were. February in Saxon England was the month when winter's grip began to loosen just enough to make a mess of things. If you find yourself in the old heartlands of Wessex this

Today, in the stillness between bare branches, I found the brown hare, still, quiet, taken by the season. A shape once swift, now resting...

Years ago now, I was walking on the South Downs on a new-to-me footpath. It was pretty and I'd been strolling for a while, lost in...