As the Season Turns
by Ffern
This guide to the month ahead will help you to settle deeper into the seasons. On the first of the month, nature writer Lia Leendertz presents natural history, music and folklore in our engaging patchwork format. While in our mid-month Found Sounds series, field recordist Alice Boyd meets people inspired by folk arts and the landscape. As the Season Turns is created by Ffern, makers of small-batch, seasonal perfume. To find out more visit www.ffern.co
Episodes
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November
For November we are in the glen, where despite the dark damp of autumn, treasures abound. Bright ferns, mosses and fungi glow on steep slopes of rock, each species with its own stories to tell. In the stony stream of this remote place, there are trout, handsome and wise. High above, buzzards…
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Found Sound for October: Emma Thistlethwaite
For October, Alice visits Emma Thistlethwaite, founder of floral design studio Thistle by Nature, at her workshop in Gloucestershire. As autumn settles in, Emma weaves a wreath from heather, while they talk about circles and cycles, the stories held in plants, and valuing place through flower...
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October
For October we’re amid grass-spiked sand dunes, where small birds scrap over autumn berries. Late bees search for nectar ahead of winter, a rare toad crouches amid the roses and sea buckthorn, and the wind whistles, carrying songs of mermaids in from the sea. In the water, flounders flip and…
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Found Sound for September: Charlotte Church
For September, Alice visits iconic Welsh singer Charlotte Church at The Dreaming, the retreat she has created in the Welsh countryside. Alice and Charlotte explore the ancient Welsh rainforest as their conversation moves through nature, music, ritual and creativity - and our relationship with the...
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September
For September, we’re on a shingle beach, where the shifting pebbles reveal unexpected life. Tall stalks of wild fennel have long memories to share, while above us black-headed gulls call insistently in the fading sky. At sea, tiger-striped mackerel slip and shimmer through the waves, displacing…
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Found sound For August: Jackie Morris
Jackie Morris has the word ‘entrance’ on her studio floor - to remind her that’s her job, she says. For August, Alice visited Jackie at home on the wild Pembrokeshire coast, to be entranced by Jackie’s reflections on her extraordinary career as one of Britain’s most celebrated illustrators,...
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August
In this August episode, it’s an unsettled day on the estuary. As the tide retreats the mud gives up its treasures - molluscs, aromatic wild herbs and the calls of wetland birds. In the water, small sharks scull through the shallows, while back on shore we hear tales of transformation, and a…
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Found Sound for July: Errol Reuben Fernandes
This July, Alice meets gardener and artist Errol Reuben Fernandes, Head of Horticulture at south east London’s Horniman Museum and Gardens. Errol leads Alice to an overlooked place that’s been special to him since childhood - an abandoned brownfield site that nonetheless thrums with life. Found...
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July
For July, we’ve arrived by the sea - strolling along the rocky shore to find fossils at our feet, while swifts and swallows whisk along the sand. The rockpools burst with anemones and crabs, and we forage for seaweed along the tidelines. Lisa Knapp sings goodbye to the cuckoo, soon to fly from...
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As the Season Turns presents Muco and 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'
As the Season Turns presents singer and composer Muco as he ventures to find a hidden Medieval chapel in Dorset and share his unique musical interpretation of the Arthurian legend – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – commissioned by Ffern for their Summer 26 Green Knight season.
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Found Sound for June : Muco
For June, Alice travels to Swanage in Dorset to meet the songwriter and composer Muco. Together they take a walk through Studland Woods, where he spent time as a child, reflecting on the influence of his mother and father on his love of words, his passion for old and middle English and his love…
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June
This June we’re by the creek, trying not to get stuck in the rich mud as we forage for samphire and other salty snacks. In the water there are eels, travelling just one stage of their incredible life cycles, and above it flit dragon- and damselflies, and bright blue demoiselles. The rising wind...
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As the Season Turns presents 'This Wild Land' by Max Porter
'The point of this has always been bliss.' As the Season Turns presents author Max Porter, reading his ecstatic springtime poem, commissioned by Ffern for their Spring 26 film, 'This Wild Land'. The film was made at Knepp Wilding - a rewilding project in Sussex. Watch This Wild Land, narrated by...
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Found Sound for May: Max Porter
For May, Alice travels to Bath to meet critically acclaimed writer Max Porter in a quiet woodland on the edge of the city, discussing how landscape shapes his work, the process of writing, and the interplay between the fantastical and the domestic. We hear Max reading from the ecstatic springtime...
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May
For May, we are in the wet woodland - where ferns glow amid the alders in the light of this month’s pair of full moons, and we catch sight of a tiny spiny monster in the water. We hear a song about May’s unpredictable weather, and a story about a sparrowhawk. Meanwhile we forage for skullcap and...
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Found Sound for April: Singing with Nightingales
For April, Alice travels to East Sussex for the homecoming event of Singing with Nightingales. Here she meets friend of As the Season Turns Sam Lee, a Mercury-nominated folk musician, song collector and founder of the project, which brings people together each spring to experience the magic of...
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April
Our April chalk stream is sunlit and clear, a river in a fairytale. We spot amphibians and salmon in its crystalline waters, pick wild watercress and stand rapt on the bank to listen to Britain’s most virtuoso songbird. This month’s music is a new version of the rousing old song ‘When Spring…
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Found Sound for March: Zakia Sewell
For March, Alice is in South London. Here she meets author and DJ Zakia Sewell for a spring equinox ritual. They quest together through landscape and story - while walking to the Hilly Fields stone circle, gathering signs of spring as they go. Found Sounds are sonic scrapbooks of field recordings...
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March
For March, we’re by the river - where ancient fishes swim amid the water weeds, and not every spring green is as lovely as it appears. Today, we hear tell of strange dreams, look out for Zodiacal Light, and listen out for birdsong, that harbinger of spring. Also singing is Lisa Knapp, with her...
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Found Sound for February: Muireann Ní Sheoighe Eachthighearn
For February’s Found Sound, Alice Boyd visits Muireann Ní Sheoighe Eachthighearn, one of only a handful of female luthiers, or fiddle makers, working in Ireland. Alice records the many interesting sounds of Muireann’s practice - from a chisel in maple to the sound of water hitting a hot bending...
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February
This month, we’re out on the marsh - exposed beneath the fleeting February sky. Wading birds chatter and forage around us as we note the names of grasses, and hunt for sea beet and will o' the wisps. Silver fish slip through the shallows, and as we get closer to the sea a song of the shipping...
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Found Sound for January: Tabby Booth
For January’s episode, the first of 2026, Alice Boyd meets artist, illustrator and curator Tabby Booth at her studio in Falmouth, Cornwall. They talk outsider art, re-connecting with your creativity and retreating into the cave - meanwhile meeting Raisin, Tabby's rescue pigeon. Found Sounds are...
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January
Come with us to the chilly canal for our first episode of 2026, a series themed around water. We forage for nettles along the banks and dip below the surface with a fearsome fish of the month. Above us, amid the emerging constellations, starlings murmurate, moving mountains in Cynan Jones' new...
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Found Sound for December: Matthew Bannister
For December's Found Sound, Alice Boyd walks with broadcaster Matthew Bannister, creator of the podcast Folk on Foot, through the Wildbrooks of Amberley in West Sussex. Their conversation wanders through Matthew’s discovery of folk music to the new voices keeping the tradition alive today. Found...
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December 25
Wrap up warm for our December episode - the last of our 2025 series. We prune our orchard’s sleepy trees, make ephemeral ink from sloes, and visit the coast for one of the UK’s most exciting wildlife spectacles. In the sky, the Geminids are falling - and we’re bringing in the green for the...
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Found Sound for November: Some Interesting Apples
For November, Alice Boyd visits an apple tasting trial, organised by a project called Some Interesting Apples, at Kestle Barton in Cornwall. We hear from a panel of apple experts who are selecting and preserving wild-grown, chance-seedling apples for the Wilding Mother Orchard. Found Sounds are...
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November 25
For November, let's crunch along leafy paths and hedgerows. We’ll gather sloes and the last apples, spot colourful mushrooms, and head to the Forest of Dean to spot a once-extinct mammal. Meanwhile spooking ourselves with tales of the Erl-King’s daughter under the light of the Darkest Depths...
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Found Sound for October: Caroline Ross
For October's Found Sound, Alice visits multidisciplinary artist and writer, Caroline Ross, at her new home in Hexham, Northumberland, where they make ink from oak galls. They discuss the rich history of natural inks, and the importance of using our hands for everyday tasks - and to create…
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October 25
Join us for a chilly, colourful October day. We’ll meet drunken butterflies, tell stories of conkers and hawthorn, and after dark visit the city, to meet an animal who lives comfortably among the people there. As the Season Turns is an award-winning podcast presented by Lia Leendertz and created…
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Found Sound for September: Matt Somerville
This September, Alice visits wild honey bee conservationist and carpenter Matt Somerville in his cottage in Hampshire. His work champions a bee-centred approach to conservation, placing the wellbeing of wild colonies above honey production. Together they explore Matt's practice of creating log...
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September 25
Wander with us through a soft September day. We’ll gather fruit in the orchard, and blackberries and rosehips in the hedges - and eat them. Sam Lee gives us a new version of the old song 'Polly Vaughan', while this month’s mammal lives by water. As the Season Turns is an award-winning podcast...
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Found Sound for August: Hazel Gardiner
In August, Alice Boyd visits floral designer, writer and broadcaster Hazel Gardiner in London - where Hazel creates a joyful floral arrangement from her garden. Hazel Gardiner Design produces boundary-breaking floral experiences, blending sustainability with storytelling. Their bold, nature-led...
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August 25
For August, revel with us in the final days of summer. We refresh ourselves by the sea, looking for giants, and wander the woods in quest of danger... In the orchard we celebrate the leavings of summer storms, while in the shortening twilights we brandish hazel wands. Meanwhile, Sam Lee sings 'Up…
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Found Sound for July: Lara Maiklem
For July, Alice Boyd visits author and mudlark Lara Maiklem on the Thames foreshore in Wapping, London. Lara takes us on a mudlarking walk, to search for London’s forgotten objects. Found Sounds are sonic scrapbooks of field recordings and interviews with people keeping heritage crafts alive.…
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July 25
Wallow with us in the quiet of July, seeking out the coolness of water in the orchard and the wetlands. Along the way we hunt for chicken of the woods and predict the weather on St Swithin’s Day. To begin, Sam Lee sings 'I Have Been A Rambling' - an unusual song with a strange image at its heart....
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Found Sound for June: Cara Murphy
In our Found Sound for June, Alice Boyd meets award-winning silversmith Cara Murphy on a beach near Belfast, Northern Ireland. We hear how the natural world influences Cara’s work, later joining her at the Ulster Museum to explore the role of handmaking in contemporary society. Found Sounds are...
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June 25
For June, Sam Lee sets the tone with a serene arrangement of the beautiful midsummer hymn, 'Abroad for Pleasure'. We stroll from meadow to orchard to woodland, where we meet nightjars, spark bonfires and stumble across a truly adorable mammal of the month. As the Season Turns is an award-winning...
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Found Sound for May: Nadeem Perera
For May's Found Sound, Alice Boyd heads to Bristol to record the dawn chorus and meet wildlife presenter, activist and birder Nadeem Perera. We hear about how birdwatching has changed Nadeem’s life, and his role in building community as a founder of Flock Together. Found Sounds are sonic…
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May 25
To bring in May we'll forage for bread and cheese, gather round the Maypole, and slip down to the riverbank to meet our mammal of the month. To begin, Sam Lee sings a new version of the Padstow May Song. As the Season Turns is an award-winning podcast presented by Lia Leendertz and created by...
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Found Sound for April: Lucy May Schofield
For April's Found Sound, Alice Boyd meets artist Lucy May Schofield in her studio in rural Northumberland. We hear about Lucy’s water-based woodcut printing practice, as well as her fascination with the passage of time, our place in the cosmos and our relationship to the earth. Found Sounds are...
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April 25
Wend your way with us through an April day - through the blossoming orchard, to Japan for our monthly tree ritual, under the oak trees with Zoe, our resident forager, and up into the dusky air with emerging bats. Soundtracked by Sam Lee's song for April, 'The Cuckoo'. As the Season Turns is an...
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Found Sound for March: Claire Ratinon
In March, Alice meets organic food grower and author Claire Ratinon in her garden in East Sussex. Sheltering from the rain, they plant the first seeds of the year in Claire’s greenhouse and meet some feathered friends - discussing signs of spring, tomatoes and the enormous value of growing. Found...
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March 25
March is the start of spring - to celebrate, Sam Lee sings an uplifting new arrangement of the folk anthem 'Birds in the Spring'. Our mammal of the month is the mad March hare, while in the woods we look for bear garlic and go birch tapping. Meanwhile, Lia tells the Cornish folktale of The…
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Found Sound for February: Darren Appiagyei
For February's Found Sound, Alice Boyd meets wood artist Darren Appiagyei in Greenwich Park in south-east London, before heading to his studio to learn more about his wood turning practice. In the background, you’ll hear chirping parakeets, the rumble of traffic and the occasional plane overhead,...
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February 25
For February, Sam Lee gives us a bold new version of 'Oakham Poachers', a traditional ballad recorded in Gloucestershire. In the orchard, we explore mistletoe folklore and select apple trees for planting. Zoe goes foraging for jack by the hedge, while our mammal of the month has a striped face, a...
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Found Sound for January: Morvern Graham
For January’s Found Sound, Alice Boyd meets Scottish-Scandinavian illustrator, printmaker and storyteller Morvern Graham on the East Scottish coast. Together, they head out onto the windy beach to collect limpets for Morvern’s latest folklore character: the Shellycoat. Found Sounds are sonic...
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January 25
For our first episode of 2025, we are delighted to welcome this year's musician - the wonderful Sam Lee, who has composed a song for January especially for us. Zoe Gilbert begins the year looking for jelly ear fungus and wood wives. And our presenter Lia Leendertz tells a seasonal folk tale from...
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Found Sound for December: Lia Leendertz
For our final Found Sound of 2024, we have created a special episode for you. Alice Boyd travels to Somerset to meet our very own Lia Leendertz, Almanac-maker and presenter of As the Season Turns. They visit Stanton Drew Stone Circles, to the south of Bristol, where they talk about stone circle...
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December 24
For December, our final episode of 2024, we mark the winter solstice with fireside tales of elder trees and wrens. The Breath sing 'Carry Your Kin', a song for the turn of the year, and we walk through the still, dim woods, looking for winter's jewels. As the Season Turns is an award-winning...
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Found Sound for November: Poppy Okotcha
This month, Alice Boyd is with ecological food grower, forager and cook Poppy Okotcha in her garden in Devon - where they plant beans, make compost and discuss how gardens can help us envision alternative ways of living. Found Sounds are sonic scrapbooks of field recordings and interviews with...
About this show
This guide to the month ahead will help you to settle deeper into the seasons. On the first of the month, nature writer Lia Leendertz presents natural history, music and folklore in our engaging patchwork format. While in our mid-month Found Sounds series, field recordist Alice Boyd meets people inspired by folk arts and the landscape. As the Season Turns is created by Ffern, makers of small-batch, seasonal perfume. To find out more visit www.ffern.co
Hosted by
Ffern