Season 4 timeline
In TLD it looks like late summer/early autumn but then it's suddenly Sherlock's birthday (which supposedly is january 6th) but virtually no time passed between TLD and TFP if you look at the plot.
I've postponed trying to solve this for my fic but now that I need to write scenes in a house with a garden I must deal with this somehow.
UPDATE:
I decided to go back and look at the script for this whole birthday business (I don't currently have access to the show itself) and I feel it's obvious now that John just failed at deduction (like he often does) and Sherlock just goes along with it because he doesn't want to reveal anything about what is really going on. I mean the episode is called The Lying Detective after all.
JOHN … I’m going to make a deduction. SHERLOCK Okay. That’s good. JOHN And if my deduction is right, you’re going to be honest, and tell me, okay? SHERLOCK Okay. Though I should mention it is possible for any given text alert to become randomly attached to an entirely different - JOHN Happy Birthday. SHERLOCK … Thank you, John, that’s very kind. Sherlock now avoiding John’s gaze - like a teenager quizzed by his parents about his girlfriend. JOHN Never knew when your birthday was. SHERLOCK Well now you do.
