your pocket guide to romanticising june
a summer of strawberries + serotonin pls 🍓
if june were your best friend, she’d arrive twenty mins late carrying supermarket flowers and nibbles, apologise without sounding remotely sorry, then drag you outside to watch the sky for a bit as if that’s a completely normal weekday activity. she’d insist your life has not fallen apart just because you’ve been feeling a little disconnected from yourself lately. she’d buy strawberries without checking the price first. she’d tell you to wear the linen shorts. and she’d absolutely make you stay for one more drink, one more walk, one more golden hour.
june is dangerously good at making you believe everything is going to work out. she’s pointing at life going look! flowers! strawberries! long evenings! potential! she’s softly reckless, emotionally sunlit, and always trying to convince you life might still have a little more magic waiting for you.
which is probably why i love her so much.
because june arrives right as the year starts turning into the second half. it’s the point where you realise summer isn’t just something you’ve been dreaming of. it’s here. and everyone’s suddenly living their life outside and sat in a pub garden watching the match (hello world cup 2026). wimbledon is warming up in the wings too. and somebody, somewhere, has already bought strawberries and cream and opened a bottle with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for major life events.
but underneath it all, there’s this tiny sense of urgency. because we know these warm days aren’t guaranteed. we know the sunshine might disappear again next week. summer has a habit of arriving and leaving before we’ve even properly enjoyed it. so this month i’m leaning into slower days, longer evenings, colder drinks, unnecessary reading breaks and any excuse to stay outside a little longer than planned.
welcome to club june. your annual dose of strawberries & serotonin has arrived.
one tiny change this month: normally i split these little monthly guides into four sections, but june had other plans. between the world cup, the solstice, wimbledon, the strawberry moon and approximately seven thousand opportunities to sit outside with a cold drink, there simply seemed to be too much to look forward to. so this month we’re taking things week by week instead. grab an iced drink and tuck in:
week I: alfresco everything
eat breakfast outside
i don’t know who needs to hear this, but eating a strawberry outside is not the same experience as eating a strawberry indoors. there is something so luxurious about eating the exact same breakfast you would've eaten at your kitchen counter, except now you're sitting outside squinting at the sky like a retired italian nonna. coffee tastes better, birds become fascinating. june is trying to slow us down a little. we should probably let her.bring june home in a basket
i challenge you to buy one completely unnecessary seasonal thing this month purely because it feels like jun;. strawberries, peaches, elderflower cordial, tomatoes that actually taste like tomatoes. basil for pesto, a bakery pastry with far too much fruit balanced on top. june only comes around once a year. i think she deserves a snack budget.read a book at your favourite coffee shop
if you're anything like me, your summer reading list has now grown arms and legs and become sentient. the start of summer feels like a good opportunity to make the tiniest dent in it. bonus points if you only get through three pages because you spend most of your time people-watching while somebody's dog sits under the next table making the eyes at you and a stranger laughs too loudly.
week II: soft launch summer
host your own sunset picnic
a picnic can literally be strawberries, crisps (maybe some M&S picky bits if you're feeling flush), and a drink from the corner shop. don't let instagram convince you otherwise. the point isn't the food, the point is sitting somewhere beautiful while the day slowly winds itself down around you and the sky changes colour.invent your drink of the summer
every summer deserves one drink that becomes intertwined with your personality for three months; an aperol spritz, a strawberry lemonade, an iced americano. give it an unnecessarily dramatic name like "sunset delusion” make it whenever the temperature creeps above 20°C, like you're running a tiny european beach bar from your kitchen table. and tbh, if you're wfh with a fan blasting directly at your face while answering emails, i think you're entitled to a little holiday delusion every now and then.find your signature summer scent
if you don’t already have a scent that instantly transports you somewhere, consider this your sign. i still have a free tiny diffuser from a hotel on a teeny balearic island because it smells like beach days, paella, cold glasses of cava and sitting outside in breezy loungewear long after sunset. when i was fifteen i also spent basically all my lunch money for the term on a bottle of chanel during a school trip to paris. i fell in love on that trip, i'm still with him now. and one sniff and we're suddenly teenagers again. scent is one of the closest things we have to time travel, i stand by that. june feels like the perfect month to start collecting future memories.
week III: stay up with the sun
have a summer solstice slumber party on june 21st 🌙
every year i become convinced we should celebrate the solstice with the same enthusiasm we reserve for new year's eve, because after she passes the days get shorter again… i know. i can’t even. but it also means the official start of summer, so mattress on the living room floor (or camping in the back garden), fairy lights, snacks, before sunset playing in the background. maybe somebody attempting tarot cards with nothing but pure enthusiasm. the longest day of the year is pure magic and i refuse to let her pass unnoticed.give one corner of your life a summer refresh
not your whole house. absolutely not. i’m talking one corner. wash the blankets or covers and let them dry outside in the sunshine. hoover under the sofa and pretend to be shocked that there are so many crumbs. open every window. buy flowers. light a candle that smells vaguely like sea salt and expensive holidays.i swear sometimes a tiny refresh does more for your mood than attempting to reinvent your entire life. sometimes the answer is genuinely just a clean sofa.
take a sunset drive with your favourite playlist
windows down. music up. nowhere specific to be. some of life's best thoughts arrive somewhere between golden hour and the first streetlights switching on. the pressure's off, the day's behind you and somehow everything feels a little more possible. and if you don't drive, a sunset walk (or bike ride) counts. the assignment is simply to let the evening happen to you.
week IV: strawberries, cream & slightly panicking that it's nearly july
watch wimbledon purely for the background atmosphere
i understand approximately 14% of tennis and somehow wimbledon remains one of my favourite annual british traditions. the strawberries and cream, the soft applause, the all-whites. the impossible levels of politeness. and if actual tennis isn't your thing, the 2004 film wimbledon is basically a rom-com disguised as a sporting event and that's good enough for me.make a date with the strawberry moon
the strawberry moon arrives on june 29th and marks the traditional strawberry harvest season, and if the june moon is going to name itself after strawberries, the least we can do is acknowledge her. make a drink, sit outside, grab a bowl of strawbs, and write down one thing you want more of this summer; romance. friendship. spontaneity. hope. a tan. i'm not saying the moon will help, but i'm also not not saying it.start a tiny summer archive
i'm begging you to become the historian of your own life this summer. grab a notebook, or create a note on your phone called “summer 2026” and start collecting evidence; photos, receipts, screenshots you'll laugh at later. future-you won't care what day you answered your emails. she will care that june 14th tasted like basil and tomatoes and somebody made her laugh so hard she snorted iced coffee.
and if you're looking for a way back to yourself this month, i've included a little june journaling practice too as your companion for the month. journaling became my safe space last year. the page never judges, interrupts or tells you to hurry up. five minutes a day is plenty. sometimes it just helps to hear your own voice again.
june’s media corner
📺 not suitable for work - june 2, disney
i will run to anything mindy kaling writes. follows five work-obsessed twenty-somethings who strive for professional success and, if they have time, personal happiness, in manhattan. already obsessed.
📺 clarkson’s farm S5 - june 3, amazon
every year i accidentally become deeply invested in the going-ons of diddly squat farm, i can’t explain it but’s it’s weirdly soothing watching people discuss cows, crop cycles and weather patterns while you eat snacks on the sofa.
📺 america’s sweethearts: dallas cowboys cheerleaders S3 - june 16, netflix
somewhere between a sports documentary and a masterclass in ambition, perfectionism and performance. i binged the last two seasons embarrassingly quickly and fully expect to do the same again.
🍿 disclosure day - june 12, cinema
the trailer alone had me intrigued. one of those films that feels destined to spark long conversations afterwards, which is usually a very good sign.
new books to add to your reading list this month
📖 whistler by ann patchett - june 2
because ann patchett is ann patchett. that should probably be enough information. i trust her with my life at this point and will be clearing my schedule accordingly.
📖 land by maggie o’farrell - june 2
a story about mapping ireland after the great hunger in 1865, where ghosts, ancient woodland and buried histories refuse to stay buried.
📖 this immortal heart by jennifer saint - june 4
aphrodite, ares, love, war and all the divine chaos that follows. i fear this was written specifically for anyone who ever developed a personality around greek mythology.
📖 the someday garden by ashley poston - june 16
this one is SO june it hurts. gardens, summer, historic house, magical realism, maine, mysterious man. need i say more? this is practically the mascot of your june
june’s main character moments
⚽ world cup — june 11
football fan or not, there’s something weirdly lovely about the world cup becoming the background noise of summer. one of my favourite memories is watching the 2022 final in a tiny bar in amsterdam while snow fell outside and the entire place collectively lost its mind through penalties. for a few weeks the whole country is rooting for the same thing. which feels surprisingly rare these days.
☀️ summer solstice — june 21
for one night only, i fully support pretending you're part of a small woodland cult whose sole purpose is celebrating sunlight.
🎾 wimbledon — june 29
even if you understand absolutely nothing about tennis scoring (same). there’s something deeply comforting about the traditions of it all.
🌙 strawberry moon — june 29
step outside, look up, make a wish if you're that way inclined and take a mental snapshot of where you are right now, because future-you will want to remember this version of summer.
ps. when you become a paid reader, here’s what lands in your inbox each month:
crumb theory: a soft monthly syllabus to change how you see things
monthly journaling guides: that bring you back to yourself
anti-scroll side quests: that stop you scrolling past your life
deeper essays + practical toolkits: to help you untangle your brain
a (digital) seasonal journaling zine: arriving this summer
plus full access to the archive
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notes from june 2026
i know life doesn’t always move in the order we imagined it would.
sometimes it feels like standing on the monopoly square where you miss a turn while everybody else keeps passing go and racing ahead. i know first-hand that some of us are carrying things that don’t fit neatly inside summer moodboards and bucket lists. but i also know there are still favourite songs you haven’t heard yet, favourite books waiting to be read, favourite meals you haven’t yet tasted, and summers you haven’t lived through yet that you’ll remember for the rest of your life.
so don’t disappear indoors completely, okay? june has plans for us 🍓
—hannah x
ps. what tiny thing are you irrationally excited about this summer?
keep reading crumbs:
if crumbs helps you untangle your mind, quiet growth is where you start building something from it, with your own voice, lens, ideas, rhythm, and into something that quietly becomes yours. it’s there whenever you’re ready to explore your creativity further <3
~ all images sourced from pinterest
I started smiling reading this. Thank you🍓🥰
You nailed every part of June, stunning writing ✍️ I felt every part of it