Lia Leendertz

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Lia Leendertz

Garden/food writer

05/01/2024

The full cold moon, ageing hawthorn berries framing the winter countryside, lingering Christmas cosiness…every week over on my substack, Lia’s Living Almanac, we make a sort of ‘community poem’ about the week just passed, a way of tracing the year, together, as it evolves. This is an excerpt from today’s.
Come and join us by clicking on the link in my bio and then onto ‘Lia’s Living Almanac’, or via my stories.

01/01/2024

Now open your new almanacs!
Happy new almanac day! I hope you enjoy following through the year with The Almanac 2024 by your side, guiding you through each month’s moons, stars, weather, nature, food and folklore.
Beautiful illustrations this year are by .ro 🥰

🌙💫❄️JANUARY❄️💫🌙
1 - New Year’s Day
3/4 - Quadrantid Meteor shower 💫
5 - Twelfth Night 👑
6 - Epiphany 🤴🏽🤴🏿🤴🏻
6 - Nollaig na mBan/Women’s Christmas 👩🏻
7 - Orthodox Christmas Day
8 - Plough Monday
13 - Lohri
26 - Burns Night 🥃
26-28 - RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 🐦

You can also help me chart the changing seasons of the year ahead week by week by signing up to my Substack newsletter, Lia’s Living Almanac. Find the link via my bio x

💫❄️🌙❄️💫

31/12/2023

A gift from .co and As the Season Turns this New Year’s Eve…an album of songs for the year from this year’s guest musician
Click on my stories for the link.
New podcast series with new guest musicians begins tomorrow!

23/12/2023

My little book is…No 26 in ALL BOOKS on Amazon!
And has now spent many weeks in the Independent Bookshop top ten.
Thank you to everyone who has bought The Almanac 2024 and now has it nestled under a tree. The support amazes me every year, and it allows me to keep making them, which I love to do.
Merry Christmas! 📚🎁🎅🏻🎄🌙✨

22/12/2023

Winter solstice at Stanton Drew stone circle (this was yesterday morning, they always do theirs on the 21st).
So moving and so much fun. Thanks and co!
Happy solstice ❄️🔥

21/12/2023

The longest night, and shortest day.
The winter solstice falls at 3.27am tomorrow, 22nd December. It is the moment of the northern hemisphere’s most extreme twist away from the sun, while the southern hemisphere basks in its full glow. From tomorrow the sun will begin to creep northwards in our sky, and back to us.
Light a candle and take a moment, settle into the darkness but invite the light back.
Happy winter solstice 🔥🍷🕯️❄️

Image: Winter Sun Study #4 by William R Davis

17/12/2023

So delighted to spend time chatting with this morning about The Almanac 2024 - as you can see from my cheesy grin! If you missed it is now up on iplayer. My bit starts two hours in but as ever it’s all very worth listening too.
Thanks Cerys! xx

17/12/2023

On the train and hurtling towards ! I’ll be in at midday, talking about midwinter and The Almanac 2024 x

17/12/2023

How’s your yearning for your midwinter cave? In my monthly catch up on my substack, Lia’s Living Almanac, I talk about this desire to make the most of this cosy dark time (or perhaps the least?), and how that rubs along with the reality of the hurtle towards the end of the year.
Come and join me. Link is in my bio x

16/12/2023

Tomorrow (Sunday) I will be on show at about midday, talking about midwinter and The Almanac 2024. Tune in!
The Almanac makes a lovely little stocking filler packed with the year ahead’s moon phases, sunrises, meteor showers, tide times, folklore, recipes and more, and it’s out there in lots and lots of beautiful little independent bookshops 📚🎅🏻🎄🎁

09/12/2023

🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕
December’s moon phases
From The Almanac 2023
The new edition of The Almanac is out now! Have 2024’s moon phases, meteor showers, sunrises and sunsets at your fingertips.
Links in my bio and my stories. It makes a beautiful little stocking filler 📚🎄🌝
🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑

08/12/2023

Week 49 💫
What has made your week feel particularly ‘this week in the year’? What differentiated it from the week before? These are the questions I ask on my substack, Lia’s Living Almanac, each week, and here are some of the answers I got back this week.
Come and join us as we track the minutiae of the year in all its tiny details and its grandeur.
Find the link in my bio under ‘Lia’s Living Almanac’ or via my stories 💫

01/12/2023

✨🎁🎄DECEMBER! 🎄🎁✨
1 - Start of meteorological winter ❄️
3 - First Sunday in Advent 🕯️
7 - Hanukkah 🕎
9 - Close approach of moon and Venus 🌙 ⭐️
13-14 - Geminids meteor shower 💫
22 - Winter solstice ☀️
24 - Christmas Eve 🎅🏻
25 - Christmas Day 🎄
26 - Boxing Day/St Stephen’s Day 🎁
31 - New Year’s Eve 🥂
I hope you have enjoyed this follow through the year with my book, The Almanac 2023, with illustrations by .chen. Now it is time to get your hands on The Almanac 2024! Out now in all the lovely bookshops or via the links in my bio 📚
Have a beautiful, sparkly December
✨🎁🎅🏻🎄🥂🎄🎅🏻🎁✨

24/11/2023

Week 47 ✨
The Friday post on my substack, Lia’s Living Almanac, is a community affair, a crowd sourced gathering of moments from the week just passed. Here are a few highlights from this week, in all its blustery, cosy, squelchy festiveness.
You can join in! Click on the link for Lia’s Living Almanac on the link in my bio ✨

16/11/2023

Ahead of Christmas wonderful has named The Almanac 2024 one of its Best Books of the Year! In their Nature & Travel section, alongside some gorgeous picks 🍂🐿️🐸
Find the Waterstones link to The Almanac via my bio, or direct via my stories x

07/11/2023

November’s moons
🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕
Your moon phases for the month ahead, from my book, The Almanac 2023.
The beautiful 2024 edition of The Almanac, filled with the year’s moon phases, sunrises and sets, tide times, seasonal recipes, folk stories and more is out now, putting all of this information at your fingertips.
🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑

06/11/2023

Autumn is really happening out there now… 🍂🍂🍂
I was passing this amazing avenue of beech trees close to the Avon Gorge today and did a dodgy screech off the road and mounted the pavement to stop and look. But it is NOT in its prime yet, when the whole scene turns shimmery copper. Peak beech has not yet been achieved. I will try to catch it again 🍂🍂🍂

03/11/2023

Week 44 🌝🦊🥬
Some highlights. The Friday post on my substack, Lia’s Living Almanac, is a community affair, a crowd sourced gathering of the minutiae of the week just passed, tracking the seasons week by week in all their magic and mundanity. I love it.
You can join in too. Click on my bio and then on ‘Lia’s Living Almanac’. I hope to see you there.

01/11/2023

🕸️🍂🔥NOVEMBER🔥🍂🕸️
1 - Samhain 🔥
1 - All Saints’ Day
2 - All Souls’ Day
5 - Guy Fawkes Night 💥
11 - Martinmas 🪿
11 - Remembrance Day
12 - Remembrance Sunday
13 -Diwali 🕯️
16 - Beaujolais Nouveau Day 🍷
23 - Thanksgiving 🦃
26 - Stir Up Sunday
30 - St Andrews Day 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Info is from and photo is of my book, The Almanac 2023. The 2024 edition is out now! And fits beautifully into stockings…links in my bio
🕸️🔥🍂🔥🕸️

31/10/2023

🍂🎃Samhain/Hallowe’en🎃🍂
We are on the very cusp of winter now, and we mark it just as it has been marked for hundreds of years, by carving lanterns, dressing up as the ghouls we want to scare away, and making mischief.
I have made a folky, spooky playlist especially for sitting and listening to tonight, with candles lit and a glass of something fortifying to hand. It is an alternative way to mark the moment, if dressing up as a sexy vampire nun isn’t your thing (or, hey, even if it is…).
The playlist is available to subscribers to my substack. It contains traditional ghostly and seasonal folk songs from The Almanacs over the years, plus newer spine tingling folk, and is properly eerie. I love it. Find it by clicking on the link in my bio and then onto ‘Lia’s Living Almanac’ or via my stories.
🎃🍂🎶🍂🎃

28/10/2023

🎃🎶 My All Hallows playlist 🎶🎃
I have curated a spooky, folky, fiery playlist for All Hallowmas and Guy Fawkes. It contains renditions of some of the October and November folk songs found in my almanacs over the years, plus other spooky and ghostly songs - there being no shortage of folk songs based on things eerie and otherworldly…some of them properly spook me.
Find it on my substack, Lia’s Living Almanac, today, via the link in my bio or via my stories.
Then pour yourself a stiff drink, put a match to the fire, and remember, it’s just the wind blowing a branch against the window, my dear…
🎃🎶🍂🕯️🥃

27/10/2023

Week 43: Still so green out there, but the canopy is thinning and letting in pools of light.
Every week on my substack Lia’s Living Almanac, me and my community track the weeks of the year in all their mundane and magical details. Some highlights this week:
- Stepping out into the cold night air and the street smelling of woodsmoke
- Plump pork sausages, champ & gravy
- Gathering in the last runner beans, tomatoes & courgettes
- Getting the gutters cleared
- Watching windsurfers battle squally winds and high waves
It’s turned into a really gorgeous way of marking the changing seasons, a peek into multiple October windows, and anyone can join in.
To find us click on the link in my bio and then on ‘Lia’s Living Almanac’.

26/10/2023

Image: Venice, Moonlight, by Christopher Williams, 1925
🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑 We are coming up to the Blood Moon or Hunter’s Moon, October’s full moon, which comes with a partial lunar eclipse on the evening of the 28th.
Check my latest post on my substack, Lia’s Living Almanac, for exact timings. You can find it via the link in my bio and via my stories.
🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕

22/10/2023

‘When it comes to autumn cakes I don’t want anything particularly clever. Call me basic but I want: toasted nuts, burnt sugar, apples, maple syrup, cinnamon. And quinces if they come knocking. I want a cake I could serve to Taylor Swift, good knitwear, woodsmoke-scented air and kicking through leaves in cage form, and this is what this is.’
A recipe for quince, hazelnut and maple cake on Lia’s Living Almanac today. Find it via my bio or my stories 🌰🧁🍂

20/10/2023

🍂 October has really hit this week, no messing about. Autumn rains, dark teatimes, an actual chill in the air.
Every week me and the community at my substack, Lia’s Living Almanac, trace the minutiae of the seasons as they change. Some community highlights from this week:
- apple crumble for breakfast
- tights instead of socks for school
- the canopy thinning, and a sort of fading rather than exploding into autumn
- a tawny owl duet
- searching for gloves, hat and scarf

Come and join us and join in. Click on Lia’s Living Almanac in the link in my bio, or go to my stories 🍂

14/10/2023

📚 Happy to all the wonderful independent bookshops that have given The Almanac 2024 space on their shelves (and tables and windows and tills sometimes!) this year. A huge part of the book’s success comes from a great many individual booksellers championing it in their beautiful little shops, and I couldn’t be more delighted about that. Hope you sell lots of books today! 📚 ☕️ 📖
Special shout out to my locals: 🥰📚

13/10/2023

I finished off my this week (pattern by .nl) and am ready to get cosy under it on the long autumn evenings.
Every week on my Substack, Lia’s Living Almanac, we chat about the minutiae of the week just passed - what has made this week feel seasonal, now, and like ‘this week in the year’. And this is one of mine.
Find me in the link in my bio or in my stories, and come and join in.

01/10/2023

🔥🕷️🍁 OCTOBER 🍁🕷️🔥
1 - Harvest Home/Ingathering
1 - Start of Black History Month
11 - Old Michaelmas Day 🪿
21 - Apple Day 🍎
21/22 - Orionids meteor shower 💫
28 - Partial lunar eclipse 🌒
29 - End of British Summer Time 🕰️
31 - Hallowe’en 👻

All of this information is from my book, The Almanac 2023, and the 2024 edition is out now! Have the coming year’s important dates at your fingertips.
Links in my bio & via stories 🍁🧡

🍁🔥🕷️🔥🍁

28/09/2023

The Harvest Moon falls on 29th September and will rise as the sun sets, around 7pm. It is the final supermoon of the year. Try to spot it early and close to the horizon for that big, golden harvest moon effect.
I’ve written all about the timing of the harvest moon and where the name originates in my free weekly newsletter, Lia’s Living Almanac. Click on the link in my bio to find it and sign up.
And all your moon phases for 2024 can be found in my book The Almanac 2024, out now!
Painting: Harvest Moon by

26/09/2023

Every year we commission a different illustrator for The Almanac, and for 2024 I was thrilled that .ro agreed to join us. She has just posted a load of almanac art on her page, including these two versions of the cover…which do you prefer?
Pop over to hers to see the rest 🥰

23/09/2023

Autumn equinox! 🍂🍁
The moment of the autumn equinox, when the sun was briefly directly above the equator, fell at 7.50am BST this morning, and we are now into the darker half of the year.
Wishing you warm jumpers, brisk walks and cosy times 🔥 🥃
I have made a film about this moment in the year in my substack, Lia’s Living Almanac, in the link in my bio or via stories.
For information on the turning of the year, check out my book, The Almanac 2024, also in the link in my bio 📚
🍂🍁🕯️🧶

16/09/2023

The Almanac 2024 has been out for three weeks…and has been in the Official Indy Non-fiction Bestsellers chart for the last two! Thank you to everyone who has bought it, especially in independent bookshops - it’s never too early!
If you *have* bought it please consider leaving it an Amazon review - you don’t have to have bought it there, and these reviews help give books a real lift, especially those facing very determined copycat competition…ahem…
Links here https://linktr.ee/lialeendertz

15/09/2023

My end of September garden, looking lush and jungly🌿🌴🪴this is the sight that greets me when I step out of my back door. But there’s a hint of chill in the air and the houseplants will be coming in soon and all of this will change.
Every week I write on my free substack, Lia’s Living Almanac, about three things I have noticed this week that mark out the changing seasons, and this is one of them this week, the last blast of jungly gorgeousness. You can sign up to receive these weekly newsletters by clicking on the link in my bio. Love to see you there 🌿🌴🪴

10/09/2023

🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑
Your moon phases for September, all running up to the big and beautiful Harvest Moon on the 29th
This information is from The Almanac 2023…and the 2024 edition is out now! https://www.amazon.co.uk/Almanac-Seasonal-Guide-2024/dp/1856754642/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=almanac+2024&qid=1694325376&sr=8-1
🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕

09/09/2023

Finally, my first beefsteak tomato! We have had little cherry types for a while but whatever…it’s the big, dripping, savoury beefsteaks that I love and they have really taken their time this year. This is to be eaten sliced, salted, with a tiny bit of olive oil. Best harvest of the year.
On my substack newsletter Lia’s Living Almanac I talk every week about the seasonal things I’ve spotted/sniffed/sunk my teeth into, and this is one of them this week. A whole community of readers and commenters then adds theirs (hot, dark evenings! Venus and Saturn in the dawn gloaming! Fallow deer and haws like rubies! My commenters are poets…) Come over and join us, link in my bio.
Also a little plea - I know lots of you have bought The Almanac 2024 already, and I’m scouting for Amazon reviews - you can leave them even if you didn’t buy the book there and they really help increase visibility of the book in a tough climate. Links for the newsletter AND the reviews are in the link below. Thank you! You will really help the almanac to beat some very annoying copycat competition x

https://linktr.ee/lialeendertz

05/09/2023

🌹🌸🌺🌼🪻🌻🌷
NEW ALMANAC WINDOW!
Something very special happened today in south bristol… and created this *beautiful* floral window to celebrate The Almanac 2024’s gardening theme.
🌺🌸🌼🌻🪻🌷
If you’d like signed copies now has PLENTY, and they do mail order too. Link in my stories.

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Videos

The March episode of As The Season Turns, my podcast with @ffern.co, has just dropped. And look at our beautiful new artwork by Gemma Koomen @gemmakoomen 🥰 Find it wherever you find your podcasts, like and subscribe and it will pop up on the 1st of every month #astheseasonturns

As the Season Turns is my podcast with @ffern and the October edition is out now. Speakers on for a little clip. Find it wherever you find your podcasts- iTunes etc… -, like and subscribe and it will pop up at the start of every month. #astheseasonturns #myalmanacmoment

September’s As the Season Turns podcast is out now! This is how I feel about September: a line of pencils, a blank notebook, new projects, space to think. I love its energy. Find the podcast wherever you get your podcasts and like and subscribe please! #astheseasonturns #thealmanac #myalmanacmoment

August podcast is out today! Speakers on for a snippet. My podcast with @Ffern is called As the Season Turns, and is all about the folklore, food, sky at night and traditional celebrations of the month ahead. Find it in all of the places you find your podcasts and like and subscribe! ☀️🌻🌾🌅💛

It’s the start of a new month and that means a new episode of As the Season Turns, my podcast with @ffern.co Find it in all your usual podcast places x #astheseasonturns #myalmanacmoment #thealmanac