Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina that “spring is the time of plans and projects.” With the passing of equinox, July inspires us to seriously lift our game. Slow, cosy winter days are replaced with big plans for action. There are many spots to find little signs that Spring is coming. Here, in July, in the Southern Hemisphere, on a particularly bleak wintery day, it is reassuring to go into my private backyard woodland and note that unlike in Westeros, spring really is coming.