With reverence and love Britain s most admired rural writer chronicles daily life in the Stour valley village finding beauty and significance in its sheer ordinariness as well as in its many literary artistic and historic associations. The year takes its shape from the seasons of nature and the feasts and festivals of the Christian year. Each informs and illuminates the other in this loving celebration of nature s gifts and neighbourly friendship. Literature poetry spirituality and memory all merge to create an exquisite series of stories of our times.