What do you think?
Rate this book
The Fullness of Time: Marking the Day by Birdsong, Blooms, Shadows, and Stars
Not yet published
Expected 21 Apr 26A joyful exploration of the forgotten art of marking time from nature’s daily rhythms and a call to notice the wonders of the living world, wherever you are.
Most of us live fully digitized lives, staring at screens and tracking our data. We think of time as the relentless march of abstract, identical hours that control the shape of our days. But what might we gain from exploring the forgotten art of sensing the natural patterns of the world around us?
Cathy Haynes argues that by devoting more attention to the living rhythms of plants, animals, and light, we stand to reap inner riches that can bring us fascination and delight. To discover a new sense of time, she draws on the knowledge of astronomers, botanists, ornithologists, town planners and experts on sundial-making, shepherding, and traditional work songs.
In an earlier world, we used to mark daily cycles by shadows shrinking or the midday glow over a mountaintop. We called a phase of darkness “cockcrow” and named lively flowers for when they open and close. When working, we may have synchronized a task by singing. We’d notice the quality of the light changing at dusk and might mark the passing of night by the motion of the stars.
The Fullness of Time is an alternative history of timekeeping and an invitation to tune into the subtle changes happening around us throughout the day—even in the concrete-and-glass heart of the twenty-first-century city. Charming, gentle, and wise, it is a reminder that there are wonders to be found right before us if only we look around.
Most of us live fully digitized lives, staring at screens and tracking our data. We think of time as the relentless march of abstract, identical hours that control the shape of our days. But what might we gain from exploring the forgotten art of sensing the natural patterns of the world around us?
Cathy Haynes argues that by devoting more attention to the living rhythms of plants, animals, and light, we stand to reap inner riches that can bring us fascination and delight. To discover a new sense of time, she draws on the knowledge of astronomers, botanists, ornithologists, town planners and experts on sundial-making, shepherding, and traditional work songs.
In an earlier world, we used to mark daily cycles by shadows shrinking or the midday glow over a mountaintop. We called a phase of darkness “cockcrow” and named lively flowers for when they open and close. When working, we may have synchronized a task by singing. We’d notice the quality of the light changing at dusk and might mark the passing of night by the motion of the stars.
The Fullness of Time is an alternative history of timekeeping and an invitation to tune into the subtle changes happening around us throughout the day—even in the concrete-and-glass heart of the twenty-first-century city. Charming, gentle, and wise, it is a reminder that there are wonders to be found right before us if only we look around.
- GenresNonfictionNature
Kindle Edition
Expected publication April 21, 2026
2 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 31, 2025
Ask “What time is it?” today and the reply might come from a clock, a watch, a coffeemaker, a microwave, and a stove or an of the myriad time-keeping devices of the 21st century. In “The Fullness of Time,” British writer Cathy Haynes explores just how people marked time in less technology-focused eras. Prior to mass transportation and large scale industrial employment, the need for accuracy was less important. But who doesn’t wonder when it’s time to head home for dinner, whether working in a modern highrise or overseeing a herd of sheep due back home for the night?
Haynes discusses the older, more earth-centric methods of timekeeping that most of us missed by centuries. Our own awareness of time is so far removed from these methods that there is something almost alchemical about the processes. Yet they worked well enough for humans to rely on them through the centuries prior to widespread use of timepieces. We may still notice some almost unconsciously. Spend some time regularly enjoying a morning cup of coffee on your back porch, and you’re liable to pick up on when the bird chorus first begins and start timing your coffee to coordinate with its first trills. Do it often enough and you, like Haynes, may learn to note the exact point at which a particular type of bird begins its song. While such timelines are dependent on factors like seasons of the year, geographical location, variety of species, and environmental changes, it’s still possible to detect some broad patterns that suggest the time of day.
Farmers who are intimately familiar with their land and their stock are among the contemporary experts Haynes interviewed. There’s a regularity to the practice that encourages observation of the natural world in which they work. Tasks like twice a day milking of cows encourage awareness on the farmer’s part of when shadows grow longer and bees head to their hives. Haynes documents such subtle changes as the shape of animal’s eyes, which adjust much more obviously than our own to changing light. Cats, goats, and sheep all possess eyes that register those changes.
Flowers too respond to light in particular ways, opening or closing in response to sunlight. Morning glories, 4 o’clocks, dandelions all offer hints as to the hour, as do sunflowers and marigolds, their habit of following the light compared by early observers to the Christian’s need to follow the light of God. Just as birds do not appear all at once in the morning, flowers too vary in their habits, leading ambitious researchers of the past to attempt to create flower clocks that tell time by specific reactions on the part of a collection of plants.
Humans devised their own tricks of measuring time in the natural world, Haynes reports, such as work songs aimed at establishing a rhythm of work as well as a way to approximate the time a task took. Haynes points out that during the Covid pandemic, it was common for handwashing time to be measured by two choruses of “Happy Birthday.” People also developed scratch dials and stick dials, early forerunners to the sun dial that, though far less precise, provided enough information to suffice in a pre-industrial economy. Photographs by Haynes and her partner Rosie help the reader understand what such devices looked like and where they might still be found today in ancient churches or even untended woods.
Tracking the path of sunlight over a familiar landscape provides another source of chronological data for those attuned to the earth. Finding the “daymarks” or landmarks by which locals trace time is familiar with those living in mountain hollers where the sun’s path is late in the day and relatively brief.
Haynes’s enthusiasm for the subject, her willingness to travel far and wide, asking questions of professionals and everyday observers of earthly patterns will engage readers. It will also encourage them to observe more closely their own landscapes as they learn how people in the past navigated time. “The Fullness of Time” would make a great read for those who enjoy deep dives into nature and how the world works. Its publication date is April 21, 2026, and I do plan to order the book for the library.
Haynes discusses the older, more earth-centric methods of timekeeping that most of us missed by centuries. Our own awareness of time is so far removed from these methods that there is something almost alchemical about the processes. Yet they worked well enough for humans to rely on them through the centuries prior to widespread use of timepieces. We may still notice some almost unconsciously. Spend some time regularly enjoying a morning cup of coffee on your back porch, and you’re liable to pick up on when the bird chorus first begins and start timing your coffee to coordinate with its first trills. Do it often enough and you, like Haynes, may learn to note the exact point at which a particular type of bird begins its song. While such timelines are dependent on factors like seasons of the year, geographical location, variety of species, and environmental changes, it’s still possible to detect some broad patterns that suggest the time of day.
Farmers who are intimately familiar with their land and their stock are among the contemporary experts Haynes interviewed. There’s a regularity to the practice that encourages observation of the natural world in which they work. Tasks like twice a day milking of cows encourage awareness on the farmer’s part of when shadows grow longer and bees head to their hives. Haynes documents such subtle changes as the shape of animal’s eyes, which adjust much more obviously than our own to changing light. Cats, goats, and sheep all possess eyes that register those changes.
Flowers too respond to light in particular ways, opening or closing in response to sunlight. Morning glories, 4 o’clocks, dandelions all offer hints as to the hour, as do sunflowers and marigolds, their habit of following the light compared by early observers to the Christian’s need to follow the light of God. Just as birds do not appear all at once in the morning, flowers too vary in their habits, leading ambitious researchers of the past to attempt to create flower clocks that tell time by specific reactions on the part of a collection of plants.
Humans devised their own tricks of measuring time in the natural world, Haynes reports, such as work songs aimed at establishing a rhythm of work as well as a way to approximate the time a task took. Haynes points out that during the Covid pandemic, it was common for handwashing time to be measured by two choruses of “Happy Birthday.” People also developed scratch dials and stick dials, early forerunners to the sun dial that, though far less precise, provided enough information to suffice in a pre-industrial economy. Photographs by Haynes and her partner Rosie help the reader understand what such devices looked like and where they might still be found today in ancient churches or even untended woods.
Tracking the path of sunlight over a familiar landscape provides another source of chronological data for those attuned to the earth. Finding the “daymarks” or landmarks by which locals trace time is familiar with those living in mountain hollers where the sun’s path is late in the day and relatively brief.
Haynes’s enthusiasm for the subject, her willingness to travel far and wide, asking questions of professionals and everyday observers of earthly patterns will engage readers. It will also encourage them to observe more closely their own landscapes as they learn how people in the past navigated time. “The Fullness of Time” would make a great read for those who enjoy deep dives into nature and how the world works. Its publication date is April 21, 2026, and I do plan to order the book for the library.
Displaying 1 of 1 review