This is a nature diary, compiled from the Nature Notebook Column that the author used to write for The Times. This book is divided into two sections, city and country. It begins in August, 2014 when Harrison was living in London. She'd been there for more than fifteen years by that time, and she'd gone from feeling cut off from nature to realising that there's plenty of nature to enjoy in the city, if we just slow down and look around.
The second half of the book begins in December 2017 when she moved from London to rural Suffolk. She found that living in the country deepened her engagement with the seasons, as she continued to chronicle her joy in things like watching the migratory birds arrive every spring, the crystal clarity of a full moon night in a place where there are no streetlights, watching the deer wander through the village on winter evenings and more.
The book ends in May 2020 when the world was in the grip of the covid pandemic and people everywhere found themselves listening to birdsong, taking up gardening, going for long walks and engaging with nature in a way that they hadn't before.
This was a lovely read.