Light Rains, Sometimes Fall is a beautifully written book influenced by the prisom of Japan’s 72 ancient micro-seasons. Across 12 months, the writer charges changes that each of these ancient micro-seasons (just a few days each) brings to his local patch – garden, streets, parks and wild cemetery. From the birth of spring in early February to ‘the greater cold’ in late January, he draws out eye to the beauty of the outside world, day-to-day.
- Rain sometimes turns to hail
- Dunnock song defies traffic noise
- Woodpeckers start drumming
- Blackthorn sheds blossom
- Crows start building nests
- First chiffchaff sings
- Spring butterflies add colour
- Fox cubs start to play
- Swifts fly home
- Fruit falls to the ground
- Dragonflies lay eggs on water
- Some leaves turn yellow
- Spiders appear in sheds
- Mud all over the place!
- Magnolia shows first buds
Instead of Japan’s lotus blossom, praying mantis and bear – he watches bramble, woodlouse and urban fox, hawthorn, dragonfly and peregrine. But the seasonal rhythms and power of nature to enhance our mood remain. Both a nature diary and a revelation of the beauty of small subtle changes in nature, this book allows us to ‘look, look again, look better’:
About the Author
Lev Parikian is a writer and conductor who lives in West London. As a birdwatcher, his most prized sightings are a golden oriole in the Alpujarras (and a black redstart at Dungeness Power Station).
