About the Eight Season Year
The Eight Season Year framework was originally developed and articulated by Paul Cereghino and the Ecosystem Guild. Their work explores ecological time, watershed stewardship, and regenerative land practice.
This Middle World Farms version is an adaptation of that framework for English agroecology and working farm systems, integrating lived farming practice and soil-biology perspectives.
Original framework © Paul Cereghino
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Adaptation © Middle World Farms, shared under the same license.
The Eight Season Year
Middle World Farms recognises eight distinct seasons in the agricultural year, adapted from the Ecosystem Guild's framework by Paul Cereghino (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each season reflects observable ecological patterns in soil, water, plants, and wildlife across the English landscape.
Click any segment of the wheel above to explore each season's characteristics, or read the full descriptions below.
The Eight Seasons
The Darkness — Deep Dormancy and Minimum Throughput
When: Early December → Winter Solstice
The Darkness gathers as the year approaches its point of least light. Days are shortest. The sun tracks low and brief across the sky. This is the seasonal nadir — the point at which biological throughput across the system reaches its lowest sustained level. The land is not dead. It is conserving.
Key themes: Minimum daylength, lowest sustained biological throughput, dormancy dominant across species, energy stored not moving, groundwater recharge maximised, hydrological reset, planning and reflection season for humans, threshold before Budswell.
Budswell — Late Winter / Early Spring
When: Approximately February 1 → Spring Equinox (March 20–22)
Budswell is the season of quiet emergence — the subtle turn where deep winter begins to give way to the first whispers of spring. Although the landscape remains dominantly dormant, day length is now expanding rapidly. This change in the rhythm of light is a powerful ecological cue that plants, animals, and soil systems have evolved to read long before temperatures rise.
Key themes: Day length as a primary cue, buds swelling before leaves appear, high soil moisture from winter storage, streamflow and watershed recharge, hidden biological activity below ground, emerging bulbs and early shoots.
Springtime — Emergence and Acceleration
When: Spring Equinox onwards — when daylight overtakes darkness
Springtime begins at the balance point of the year — the Spring Equinox — when daylight overtakes darkness and the land visibly commits to growth. If Budswell is the quiet swelling of potential, Springtime is the breaking of it. Light and moisture are still working together. This combination drives explosive vegetative expansion.
Key themes: Daylength exceeds darkness, budbreak and full leaf expansion, soil biology active and accelerating, stored winter moisture driving growth, rapid vegetative biomass increase, watershed drawdown begins, ecological synchrony across species.
Bloom — Apex of Growth and Reproductive Surge
When: Around May Day onwards, when warmth and moisture align and frost risk has passed
Bloom begins when warmth and moisture align and frost risk has passed. The land no longer hesitates. Vegetation reaches its maximum rate of photosynthesis. Energy flows decisively upward into flowers, pollen, nectar, and seed formation. Across the landscape, reproduction becomes the primary ecological agenda.
Key themes: Frost risk eliminated, maximum leaf area index, peak photosynthesis, root energy at seasonal nadir, reproductive structures dominate, pollinator abundance, high evapotranspiration, moisture beginning to fluctuate, carbon captured at scale.
The Drying — Solar Peak and Water Limitation
When: Summer Solstice onwards, when daylight reaches its maximum extent
The Drying begins at the Summer Solstice, when daylight reaches its maximum extent. Though the days are still long and bright, the year has already turned. This is the season when water, not warmth, becomes the defining factor. Plants shift their metabolic focus from vegetative expansion toward seed maturation and structural strengthening.
Key themes: Solar maximum at Solstice, gradual decline in daylength, peak evapotranspiration, soil moisture decline, vegetation curing and hardening, root systems extending deeper, seed maturation begins, watershed drawdown visible, resilience patterns revealed.
Harvest — Energy Consolidation and Human Participation
When: August → Early September
Harvest follows The Drying, when maturation completes and stored energy becomes tangible. If The Drying was consolidation within plants, Harvest is consolidation within the community — human and wild alike. Solar energy captured over months has been condensed into carbohydrates, oils, proteins, and structural fibres. In this season, humans are not observers. We are participants in the flow of energy.
Key themes: Energy condensed into seeds and storage organs, human gathering central, biomass transfer off-field, nutrient cycle interruption (and responsibility), wildlife feeding and caching, light softening nights cooling, decomposition beginning in cleared beds, preparation for dormancy.
Leaf Fall — The Downward Turning
When: Mid September → October
Leaf Fall begins as daylight drops below the balance point of the Autumn Equinox. The arc of expansion has ended. Chlorophyll withdraws from leaves. Nutrients are reabsorbed into perennial tissues. The dominant ecological motion shifts from upward growth to downward return. This is the season of decomposition's acceleration.
Key themes: Daylength declining below balance, nutrient reabsorption before leaf drop, rapid litter accumulation, fungal expansion, carbon moving downward, soil moisture recharge beginning, evapotranspiration dropping, decomposition accelerating.
Frost — Metabolic Braking and Structural Stillness
When: November → Early December
Frost arrives as the land crosses into sustained cold. Leaf Fall has largely completed its work. Now temperature becomes the dominant regulator. This is the season of metabolic braking. Biological processes do not cease entirely — but they slow dramatically. The land becomes structurally still. Metabolism is not gone — but it is restrained. The land holds its breath.
Key themes: Sustained freeze–thaw cycles, rapid decline in soil respiration, groundwater recharge increasing, evapotranspiration minimal, bud hardening and sugar concentration, structural clarity in vegetation, biological activity episodic and temperature-driven.
The Eight Fire Festivals & Solar Markers
Yule — The Winter Solstice Threshold
When: Around December 21–22
Yule marks the point of least daylight in the year. It is not yet growth. It is not yet warmth. It is a pivot. Up to this point, light has been declining. After this point, light begins increasing. Even though temperatures may continue to fall, photoperiod has shifted direction. The Solstice is the first reliable signal that the trajectory of the year has changed.
Position: Solar marker between The Darkness and Budswell • Function: Light minimum → light returning
Imbolc — The First Stirring of Visible Life
When: Around February 1
Imbolc marks the first outward signs that Budswell is progressing. If Yule is the turning of light, Imbolc is the first visible response to it. Buds are no longer merely tight and swollen — some begin to crack. Catkins lengthen noticeably. Early bulbs pierce leaf litter. The land does not yet surge. But it signals. Imbolc is a season of threshold tension. Cold remains. Light grows. Potential presses upward.
Position: Cross-quarter threshold (~45°) • Function: Dormant potential becoming visible emergence
Spring Equinox — Balance of Light and Dark
When: Around March 20–21
The Spring Equinox marks the moment when day and night stand in balance. From this point forward, light exceeds darkness. This is not the beginning of growth — that began earlier. It is the stabilisation of growth. The Equinox confirms the direction of travel. The oscillation between winter and spring ends. The system commits fully to expansion. Balance has passed. Abundance approaches.
Position: Solar threshold (3 o'clock) • Function: Light overtakes darkness — acceleration stabilises
Beltane — The Fire Threshold of Fertility
When: Around May 1
Beltane marks the point where growth stops merely expanding and begins expressing. If Springtime was acceleration, Beltane is ignition. By early May, frost risk has largely passed. Vegetation shifts visibly toward reproduction. Flowering intensifies across hedgerows and meadows. Pollinator populations surge. The land has fully chosen abundance. Fire, in this context, is not destruction. It is vitality.
Position: Cross-quarter marker • Function: Vegetative growth tipping into full reproductive drive
Summer Solstice — Solar Maximum and the Turning of the Arc
When: Around June 20–21
The Summer Solstice marks the longest day and shortest night of the year. From this day forward, light begins to decline. This reversal is subtle at first, but ecologically it is decisive. Plants respond not only to warmth but to photoperiod. With the Solstice, internal calendars begin shifting toward completion rather than further expansion. The year does not collapse at the Solstice. It crests.
Position: Solar threshold (6 o'clock) • Function: Maximum daylength → beginning of contraction
Lughnasadh — First Fruits and the Fire of Ripening
When: Around August 1
Lughnasadh arrives when the tightening of The Drying produces its first substantial offerings. The first grains are ready. Early apples swell. Seeds harden in their heads. Fire again appears as symbol — not of ignition, but of transformation. Grain becomes flour. Fruit becomes preserve. It is a threshold of gratitude. The land has endured the Drying. The first proof of abundance stands in hand.
Position: Cross-quarter marker • Function: Maturation becoming edible yield
Autumn Equinox — Balance Restored, Contraction Dominant
When: Around September 22–23
The Autumn Equinox marks the second moment of balance in the year — day and night stand equal once more. But unlike spring, this balance does not signal acceleration. It confirms retreat. From this point forward, darkness exceeds light. The Autumn Equinox is not decline in the sense of failure. It is the necessary descent. Expansion required contraction. Growth required return.
Position: Solar threshold (9 o'clock) • Function: Light and dark equal — contraction overtakes expansion
Samhain — The Fire Threshold into the Dark Half
When: Around November 1
Samhain marks the point where contraction becomes unmistakable. Growth is no longer slowing — it has largely ceased. This is the crossing into the dark half of the year. Samhain has long been recognised culturally as a boundary — a liminal time when one year dies and another prepares invisibly beneath it. It is a threshold of descent. Not collapse. Not failure. But the deliberate drawing inward required for survival.
Position: Cross-quarter marker • Function: Contraction deepens — living systems retreat inward
Framework Attribution
The Eight Season Year framework was developed by Paul Cereghino of the Ecosystem Guild and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Middle World Farms has adapted and contextualised this framework for English agroecological conditions. These adaptations maintain the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. You are free to share and adapt this work with appropriate attribution.