Looking for the Magic✨: A Nature Almanac
May 2025 / The Pollinators 🐝
Welcome to Looking for the Magic✨: A Nature Almanac
Taking a walk each morning for me is a ritual I won’t compromise. Each season I notice new birds and blooms in my neighborhood. If I’m lucky, I stumble on a baby snail or an owl nesting in a tree. I’ve begun looking up the names of trees and their origin stories. I’m fascinated. It is like this magical world has been around me my entire life, and I never slowed down to really look at it.
This little almanac is your invitation to slow down and spend a little time indulging in a little bit of wonder. Think of it as part field guide, part creative prompt list, part moonlit letter — a collection of tiny, magical things I’ve gathered.
Things included this month:
The migration of the Painted Lady Butterfly
The Black-Eyed Junco fledglings in my backyard
The RedBud Tree that blooms from its bark
The Flower Moon Meditation
Creative Prompts to inspire you
Did you know the Painted Lady butterfly has been making her epic migration for over one million years? This is long before cities or roads or even us, she was fluttering her way across continents.
Each year, she travels thousands of miles, following the sun and blooming flowers, guided by instinct and stardust. No single butterfly makes the full round trip — it takes multiple generations to complete the cycle. One generation lifts off where the last left off.
To me, that’s a kind of magic: how they know and pass on that knowing.
A Found Gem: An international team of scientists called the Worldwide Painted Lady Migration Project has traced their route. You can see some beautiful photos here.
This week, I woke up to the sharp little chirp of a Black-Eyed Junco — one of my new visitors. They're sweet brown birds that look like they’re wearing tiny feathered hoodies. A pair has made a nest in my yard, and I like to believe my new bird feeder helped seal the deal. They felt safe enough to stay.
Their babies (fledglings) have already left the nest — which surprised me, because they can’t fly yet. At first, I thought one was injured, just sitting there in the dirt, blinking at me. But it turns out that’s what they do — they hop around for a couple of weeks while their tail feathers grow in. Their parents stand guard chirping warnings, feeding them, and keeping them safe.
Sadly, one left behind only a tuft of feathers. Something got to him. Nature can be “brutiful”. The next day, I spotted another fledgling hiding on my porch, tucked between my potted plants. I had to resist the urge to scoop him up and keep him safe until he could fly. But that’s not how nature works. They pick a spot that feels safe and hope for the best. I suppose we all do.
When I walk out the front door, the parents flutter along side me and chirp. It doesn’t feel like a warning but more like a little celebration. .
A Found Gem: There is a free app called Merlin. When you hear a bird sing, you hit the record button and it picks up on all the birds around you. All at the same time. It highlights the bird actively singing. It is the most amazing thing ever. A must have. I wake up in bed and hear them outside my window. I open my app and smile. I feel a bit smarter.
Have you ever spied a Redbud Tree? I was walking in my neighborhood and noticed bright flowers growing out of the bark of a tree. At first, I thought maybe the blooms got stuck on the way down. But nope. The flowers bloom right out of the bark and branches even before the leaves show up. The nectar filled blooms attract pollinators like hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. But most of all, they feel like a tree one might find in a fairytale. I want to make art where tiny villages of faeries live inside the blooms.
The Flower Moon 🌙 May 12th
Did you know every full moon has a name? These names come from Indigenous traditions — especially tribes like the Algonquin — and were later popularized by The Farmer’s Almanac. May’s full moon is called the Flower Moon, and it shows up in the thick of springtime when everything is in bloom.
It’s a symbol of fertility, renewal, and abundance — a season associated with planting, growth, and the full return of spring after the long winter. Spiritually, the Flower Moon is often seen as a time when creative energy is high, and intentions start to take root.
I know so many people complain that they cannot meditate. But it does not have to be sitting up straight and as still as possible trying to clear your mind. I’m more for a ritual of being present in the moment and taking time to reflect. Like a little ritual that is time for yourself to reflect. How often do you take time for yourself to sit and really be in the moment and see what comes up for you?
✨ The Flower Moon Meditation:
Create a little space. Light a candle or incense, sip some tea. Place your flower in the bowl of water — think of it as a tiny offering to nature, or to yourself.
Take some slow breaths. Let yourself be in the moment.
Reflect: What do you let go of and what do you want to make more space for?
Write it down. Let your answers flow. This is for you only, so see where your intuition takes you.
Close your eyes and imagine you're blooming like a wildflower — open, grounded, full of potential. Let the moonlight (real or imagined) fill you up.
This is so extra but I kind of like it: Moon Water Magic
Leave the bowl of flower water out in the moonlight overnight, then use it the next day to water your indoor plants to infuse your space with a little moon magic.
My prompts are to inspire you to get you outside and in your sketchbook or journal. It is always the best place to find yourself.
🌿Creative Prompt Ideas for May:
Take a close look at the blooms in your neighborhood. See if you can spot some bees or bugs of any kind. Snap a photo and use it for sketchbook inspiration.
Download the bird app and listen to the birds in your yard. Look up one and find out facts about them. (I like to draw each one and write the name down.)
Do the Flower Moon Meditation: At the end of it create a little cards that holds a drawing or words that remind you of that night. Place it where you can see it daily.
Go to your local nursery and buy a new flower to plant in your yard. One that pollinators love perhaps? Notice it daily and sketch it from bud to bloom.
Bugs In Bloom: There is nothing like a Spring Art Challenge. So much inspiration to be had. I’m co-hosting an art challenge on Instagram called Bugs in Bloom. I will be sharing my work here as well and wanted to invite my readers to join. You are welcome to share here as well. I will be posting my art in notes!
Until Next Time✨,
Kim
I love all of this and can’t wait to join in. I started using Merlin a couple years ago and it has helped me be able to hear and see so many birds! I see what sounds the app is picking up then move quietly towards the sound. I saw a rose breasted grosbeak this week using this method.