Embracing the Seasons is a soulful journey through the seasons of a year in a country garden. Gunilla Norris shares her observations of this garden and the surrounding land with its trees and shrubs, its flowers and vegetables, its various living beings, its brook and pond and stone walls—and she reflects on the abundance and meaning of nature and its cycles of renewal. The year begins with the arrival of spring, with the birds singing in the darkness of dawn and the buds knobbing up on tree branches and bushes, and moves through the warmth and richness of summer, the transitions and changes of fall, and the clarity and quietude of winter. Until it is spring once more.

 

Along the way we encounter a pair of finches building a nest; an old quince tree in bloom and the peonies in glory; the pond with its dragonfly and snapping turtle, water lilies and frogs. We see the splendor of daylilies and the sturdiness of hostas, hear the buzz of bees and the chorus of cicadas, sense the abundance of honeysuckle and wild grape. There is the planting of dahlias, cucumbers, basil, and impatiens in the spring, and the raking of leaves and stacking of firewood in the fall; the harvest of tomatoes, peppers, and raspberries in late summer, and fresh snow and rabbit tracks in the winter woods.

 

Embracing the Seasons opens our eyes to ordinary wonders and not-so-ordinary meanings in the small events and encounters of the everyday and invites us to remember, to care for, and to venerate the life around us.