Sångshyttan Micro Season Calendar
One year has passed. Inspired by Japanese tradition and Alexa Firmenich on her blog Lifeworlds, we have created a micro season calendar. We followed life on the farm as it unfolded over the course of one a year , from March 2024 to March 2025. It describes different events and important relationships that we have with the more than human world on the farm. Instead of dividing each day into one of four seasons, the Japanese calendar is divided into 72 different sections. Each of these sections lies within one of 24 divisions, all of which have been given descriptively beautiful names. The 72 sections (or kō) only last for about five days each, but still perfectly describe what happens as life blossoms and ebbs.
1 – 5 September / Late summer heat wave
Suddenly, warm winds sweep through the landscape. The water warms up and the morning swim becomes more enjoyable. The grasshoppers are playing their last meadow orchestral works, which become clear when almost all migrating birds have left us for the year.
27 – 31 August / Hazelnut harvest time
It's time to harvest hazelnuts, but we're not the only ones who crave these delicious nuts. The spotted nutcrackers (Nucifraga caryocatactes ) have found their way here and every season there are more and more of them. Their calls are insistent and special, so you know they've landed...
22 – 26 Augsust / Flies on face
Right now is a special time when the house flies come to my face when I go to sleep. At this time of the year they wake me up at night, time and time again, I wave them away, they come back. I hide under the covers. Is there something they want to tell me?
17 – 21 August / Southern storm winds
Autumn winds suddenly sweep in from the south with sheets of rain. It sounds like thunder as the crowns of the trees bend in the wind almost as they bow to the coming autumn. I hope our apples still hang on the branches and finish ripening.
12 – 16 August / Autumn in the air
The first feeling of autumn, when the sun warms your face and your feet freeze. A cold that slowly creeps in and the deep green colour of the trees is slowly disappearing.
7 – 11 August / Kale time
It feels like energy is pouring out of the cabbage leaves, unfolding, reaching for the sky. Slowly but surely, the energy is developing into food for me. Giving me the energy I need to take the day forward. We meet in my mouth and my whole body laughs.