Looking for the Magic✨: A Nature Almanac
June 2025 / Summer Solstice☀️
Welcome to Looking for the Magic✨: A Nature Almanac
At the beginning of summer, I feel a deep nostalgia for times past. I’m about 7, living in Elkhorn, Nebraska. My hands are dirty, and drops of a Popsicle are stuck to my bare legs. My collie is my companion. I “married” him in the cornfield that bordered our home.
Our home was the first on the block and sat on a big plot of grass with a weeping willow tree on our front lawn. My bike had those long tassels and a banana seat. I rode that thing from sunrise to sunset. I would wrap baby snakes around my wrists like bracelets. Our garage shelves were filled with glass fish tanks, jars, and pet carriers. My brothers loaded them with spiders, snakes, and locusts. I preferred the baby bunnies and frogs.
Oh, the frogs. They were the size of quarters. Once, I was looking into the window well at the side of our home, and about 10 of them popped out of a tiny hole. I declared it a miracle.
Summer has always felt like magic.
This little almanac is your invitation to slow down and spend time indulging in a little bit of wonder. There are little tidbits of things I’ve collected.
Things included this month:
Honeysuckle & Rose: The June flowers
Summer Solstice is June 20th (grab your floral crown)
The Magical Snail Tree in my neighborhood (that might make it into a storybook)
The Strawberry Moon is June 11th (time to reflect)
Creative Prompts to inspire joy
Honeysuckle & Rose: June Flowers
Roses are the beauty queens of the floral world - bold, lush, impossible to ignore. They demand your attention, like the star of a pageant, dripping in velvet petals. But honeysuckle? Honeysuckle is quieter magic. Subtle. A slender bloom shaped like a tiny trumpet, bursting like miniature sparklers along the vine.
To be honest, I’d hardly noticed them before. Last month, a drawing prompt asked for honeysuckle. On a walk I’ve taken hundreds of times, I finally saw them - an entire wall of vines spilling over my neighbor’s fence. As I stepped closer, I was taken by the fragrance. The scent - heady, sweet, intoxicating. Honeysuckle grows more fragrant at night, luring moths in the dark. It’s right up there with jasmine as one of the most intoxicating scents in my neighborhood.
A rose in bloom is impossible to overlook. It’s a grand gesture, a love letter. And when you stumble on one in an unexpected hue? Magical.✨
So yes - roses, you win Best in Show. But honeysuckle? You take home the crown for fragrance.
In the Victorian era, young women were warned about bringing honeysuckle indoors. Its perfume was believed to inspire suggestive dreams. So the next time you see honeysuckle winding its way through a fence or trailing across a trellis - bring some of that gold home. Nature gave it to us to enjoy. 😉
Summer Solstice: June 20th
They had me at the flower crowns. Those images of people outdoors, adorned in blooms, dancing around maypoles and feasting on summer fruit - it feels like a dream from another time. Yet in places like Scandinavia, these solstice traditions still thrive, honoring the longest day of the year. It’s a celebration of light, abundance, and our connection to nature - something we’ve grown distant from in modern life. We forget to witness the subtle changes in nature, to notice the quiet blooms around us. The Summer Solstice should be a holiday. I, for one, would love to weave a crown of wildflowers, share a sun-drenched meal, and dance barefoot in the grass, warmed by the golden light of the longest day.
The Magical Snail Tree
In my neighborhood stands a tree quietly shimmering with snails - loads of them, clinging to the bark like tiny jewels. The sight stopped my husband in his tracks, and he promptly sent me its location. It felt like a doorway into a secret world, the kind that belongs in a children’s book. (And yes, the husband has my love language down. 🤗)
Nature often feels that way to me, like glimpses into miniature universes hidden in plain sight.
Most snail shells form in a Fibonacci spiral - a perfect golden curve that also appears in sunflowers, hurricanes, and distant galaxies. It’s as if the geometry of the universe is etched into their backs. A hidden pattern that links us all.
I keep thinking how lovely it would be to turn this magical texture into wallpaper. To bring the outdoors in. To wrap the walls of my home in the patterns found in nature.
The Strawberry Moon 🌙 June 11th
The Indigenous Algonquin people named it the Strawberry Moon - June’s full moon, arriving just as wild strawberries ripen in the fields. Hanging low in the sky, it glows not pink as its name might suggest, but a rich, golden hue. It marks a moment of ripening, of things coming to fruition, the turning of one season into the next.
This time of year invites reflection. Too often, we rush ahead, setting new goals, chasing the next milestone, without pausing to notice all we’ve already gathered. All we’ve learned, made, or simply survived.
This moon is a reminder to look back. To notice what you have accomplished. To celebrate the microjoys that have quietly threaded themselves through your days.
It’s not always about what's next. Sometimes, it's about honoring what already is.
✨ The Strawberry Moon Meditation:
Create a little space: Light a candle or incense, sip some tea. Maybe some of that yummy herbal strawberry tea. Sometimes it feels good to be extra.
Take some slow breaths: Let yourself be in the moment.
Reflect: Think of all the things that brought you joy these past 5 months. When you think about this, what comes to mind?
Write it down: I call it a braindump. In which I list freely all the bits that brought good things into my life. Growing plant babies. Taking time to go to the botanical gardens each week. Taking small steps toward working on a passion project.
Circle the top 5 favorites on your list: Let those sink in. Feel the joy of having made room in it for your life. You can create space for even more of it this year.
Okay, this is so extra, but I kind of love it: Moon Water Magic
I suggested this last month, and honestly, I’m still into it. Just leave a bowl or jar of water out overnight to soak up the moonlight. The next day, use it to water your indoor plants and infuse your space with a little lunar energy. I keep a mason jar of moon water by the plants at my art desk. I don’t know… it just feels a little bit magical. 😊.
🌿Creative Prompt Ideas for June:
Drawing Prompts: Each month, I take photos of blooms on my morning walks. I love to pair florals and creatures. Kind of my jam. Here are the blooms I’ve collected that I want to draw this month. I invite you to join me! Please feel free to post them in notes and tag me! I would LOVE to see them.
Summer Solstice Celebration: Make a cucherie board with your family or friends! Honestly, you only need a few people for a party. Or invite a bunch and have everyone bring their own board to share. Half the fun is deciding what to include - cheese, fresh fruit, tiny finger sandwiches... the sky’s the limit. There’s just something delightful about all the little things gathered together - and sharing them with people you love. It’s the BEST.
Journal Prompt: Describe a summer day from your childhood. What did the light look like? What did you wear? Who were you with?
Summer Day Fun: Do something you used to love as a kid during the summertime. Rollerskating perhaps? Catch fireflies in glass jars? Look for baby frogs? (I wish my Southern California neighborhood had frogs!)
Until Next Time✨,
Kim
My babies brought me a cup of frogs two days ago when they were playing outside! My eldest, insightfully noticed one was different than the rest. The frogs were Woodhouses’s Toads and Strecker's Chorus Frogs. I’ll paint them later this month! I too take pictures and collect them to paint, nature inspires me and capturing it in art brings me joy. I love your art! Thank you for sharing this piece. I really enjoyed reading and viewing the whole thing!