The Coastal Almanac by Jess Lea-Wilson
For the last year or so, I've been working with some of my favourite people - chefs, nature experts, photographers and writers - on this very lovely project.
Since medieval times, an almanac has been something that predicts, packed with planetary alignments, lucky days, and instructions for you to follow. This fits very neatly into my wish and hope to control, understand and to know what is coming around the headland.
But if we know anything about the world, and in our particular instance the great expanse of sea, the countless shipwrecks will affirm that we have no idea what's coming, almanac in hand or not.
Rather than to predict then, I have written this book to celebrate the turning of the seasons by the sea, offering ways to mark, notice and appreciate them, with a focus on Ynys Môn, the island I am from. Learn to identify seaweed, rockpool life, and seabird eggs. Cook a turbot over fire, and season it with sea salt you harvest yourself. Pick primroses, fig leaves, wild garlic spears, and discover ancient traditions that people have celebrated for millennia.
The allure of a life by the sea, of course, is also defined by our retreat from it when it's too rough, so during the months when the outdoors becomes harsher, I have shared ways to appreciate the inside too. There are classic Welsh recipes as well as simple, joyful crafts like marbling or dyeing hen’s eggs for a happy Easter table.
It is a cliche, perhaps, but it took life to bash me about a bit - the very real experiences of heartbreak, and serious illness of those close to me - before I started to really appreciate my natural surroundings. I am learning to pay attention to the joy of simple things and this book is a nod in that direction, with a reminder that it is all of our responsibility to look after the natural world.
Images: Jim Marsden
