The Hidden Seasons

“The Sherlock Holmes of Nature.”—BBC


From the New York Times–bestselling author of The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs: Learn to spot the endlessly unfolding clues and signs that reveal the hidden ways nature changes every day of the year

“Gooley preaches attention to common patterns in nature like a sommelier describing wine—the shadows cast by the sun here, the tree angled there, the moss greener on this side of the rock.”—The New York Times

“One of the most skilled navigators on the planet.”—Smithsonian

We all notice the flowers of spring, longer days of summer, colors of autumn, and snowfalls of winter. But have you observed the way that water tends to run clearest in June? Did you know that at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, you can find Sirius due south in the night sky? And have you seen the poetic “shadow compasses” butterflies make on the hottest days, as they align their wings with the sun, their thin shadows pointing the way north?

The sun, moon, stars, plants, fungi, animals, water, and weather all tell us secrets about the seasons—if we know how to read their clues. In this sense-awakening book, New York Times–bestselling author Tristan Gooley reimagines the seasonal calendar not as four distinct phases but as a series of changes evolving moment by moment every day of the year. Each granular shift is an extraordinary microseason you won’t want to miss. It’s time to get out there and explore—the seasons will never look, sound, or smell the same again.