“Right, if we start from Midwinter…”

“You’re going to have to rename all the months.”

“…Not necessarily.”

“Why not?”

“We want to get beyond names.”

“Beyond names?”

“Before the months were named there was a metaphor of the year.”

“And the metaphor of the year was what precisely?”

“The metaphor was the year as fire, or better, as a fire.”

“How do you know?”

“Because all the autumn months are still ’embers’.”

“The year, like a fire, rises to flame after first being kindled and then dies down to ash?”

“To ash and more, because there always is. So we will have three kindling months, three flaming months, three ember months and an ash month.”

“But no names?”

“Not to start with. There might, though, be names later.”

“So how are you going to distinguish the months?”

“As First, Second and Third Kindling… etc. Are there any more questions?”

The…