The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2019

This handy monthly guide is packed full of little gems that really reconnect you with the natural rhythms of nature throughout the year. I have to admit I'm not sure that I'll need to know tidal timetables, or but there's something enjoyable in just reading about them. I can only describe it as the same kind of comfort that can be gleaned from listening to the Shipping Forecast. There's everything I need to know here that I feel will help guide me gently through each month as it comes – the moon phases, meteor showers to look out for and night sky events... tips on lunar planting, plant of the month, garden jobs for the month and more... interspersed with recipes, tidbits of interesting info (the meaning behind the month, interesting dates and monthly traditions of yore). There's a lot of hygge wrapped up in this little book and I shall be referencing it a lot throughout the next year. I imagine my copy will become well thumbed and I can see myself purchasing a second copy as a Christmas gift for a certain family member!

The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2019 is bursting with practical and entertaining information including, sea temperatures, gardening, recipes, songs, moon phases, festivals, and more. It has already become a firm family favourite, initiating conversations about tradition and the environment, and has increased my children’s enthusiasm for nature, especially spotting the signs of seasonal change. The lino cuts by Celia Hart are spellbinding and perfectly illustrate the connections between language, nature, and landscape. The Almanac is truly delightful and I highly recommend it.

I love this book. However, I hadn’t realised that I had ordered a kindle version. It’s the kind of book that you would make notes in, well I would. So it’s on kindle so I can’t but it is lovely. Need to say that the recipes are for meat mostly.

I am loving my 2018 Almanac so was delighted to buy my 2019 edition. It's the essential companion to being a human being, with everything you might need to know from tides and meteor showers, migrations and seasonal recipes to religious festivals. You might know all this stuff but a monthly flick through is just a nice way to keep in touch with the earth, the skies and our fellow humanity. Its like if comfort food was incredibly healthy. The 2019 edition is upon first inspection just as content-satisfying but with added strokey cover and shiny. It you're buying this for a Christmas present make sure to buy one for yourself too!

I love this book packed full of interesting facts to guide you through a year in Britain as well as lovely recipes to take you through each season and harness the best of the moment. There are really useful tips for what you need to do in the garden in each month. It’s like a comfy sofa with a hot chocolate of a read bolstered with wonderful facts and historical information of each month in Britain. I brought another for my father as a present as he is a keen fisherman and he loves his copy too! A great little present for any nature lover, foodie, star gazer.

This is an attractive looking little book that encourages you to pick it up and engage with it. I love the linen feel to the cover, that it has a ribbon marker, and is prettily illustrated, but the binding is tight and it is tricksy to hold open easily. There are useful bits and bobs of information, yet it is disappointingly lacking in many ways. Some of the information is very useful, and I feel I would like more of it, yet understand this would not be practical in such a small book, so it encourages me to seek out a greater depth of information elsewhere. The tide tables are not helpful, for in my county alone there are many additions and subtractions, so for safety reasons I think it essential I use a local tide time table. Also I have yet to find a moon rise or moon set that comes even remotely close to the tables in the book, so I must be doing something very wrong and how to use that section is not clear. The book is not expensive as books go, but is pricey given that you will need to buy a local time table if applicable and that you need a new one annually. On that basis, I won't be buying in future, and I am wondering what purpose this book will serve after the year is over? I think I may repurpose it and use it for journaling or similar.

I'm enjoying the monthly reads from the almanac and look forward to catching more meteorite showers and other phenomena in the night sky. It fits in well with our modern urge to get back in touch with the outside world. It's very informative and the kind of book from which you end up reading selected parts out to your other half and saving up for phone calls to parents too!

I cannot recommend this highly enough! This is the perfect companion to getting in tune with nature, the changing seasons and what to be getting on with in the garden. It has everything from guides to seasonal foods, customs and rituals charting specific times in the calendar and a year in the beehive, which I think is a lovely new addition. It is written in such a way as to convey a genuine affection for these things and is beautifully illustrated. I suffer with the 'winter blues', but have found the 2018 almanac has helped me appreciate what the darker, drearier months have to offer, and I do not dread them nearly so much now. I will cherish the 2019 book all the more, and really hope Lia continues with it year on year.

A great book. Girlfriend loves gardening and loves this book too.

Sooo beautiful. Very happy with this my purchase - hoping another comes out next year :)

En Inglés. Precioso para quien tenga un jardín.

This is the second year that I have purchased Lia Leendertz’s magnificent almanac. The information is based on the UK, but is valuable to readers all over the world. It is full of traditional stories, holidays, recipes, gardening knowledge, weather information, and so many other things. This book is a seasonal gem that delves deeply into every month and gives little known information for each. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the seasons or the turning of the year.

This almanac is just charming. I enjoy reading about traditions and cycles of the year, so I look forward to referring to this book throughout the year. It was delivered promptly and in good shape.