Notes On: How to Romanticise May

Bc May = hope <3

"May is the month of expectation, the month of wishes, the month of hope"— Emily Brontë

“In the deepening spring of May, I had no choice but to recognise the trembling of my heart” — Haruki Murakami

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May feels, to me, like optimism. Like hope, in a month. All expectation and potential. It’s even there, in the name, isn’t it? May (modal v.): expressing possibility or expressing a wish or hope. It is also the birth month of my sister, Maya, who was born on the first of May, and who I’ve always envisioned as a sunflower, her face always tilted to the sun.

As a month, May is looking forwards. A whole summer spread out like a seascape: the blues of June and July beckoning from the horizon. Let’s start, as always, with a vibe check. May is for the colour yellow. Yolk yellow, sunset-yellow, butter yellow. Any kind, really. It’s for peonies and no-make-up-make-up and sipping white wine with paprika chips and watching the world go by at 18:30 on a work night. May is for posting hand-written letters, for the sound of ice clinking against glass, for the song ‘What Was That’ by Lorde. Here’s how to make the most of it.

Images from Pinterest

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Notes On: Spicing Up May

• First of all, I hope you’ve bought yourself a present for getting through April (if you haven’t, do it now, you deserve it).

• In my opinion, May needs a rebrand. It should be at this point of the year - after the showers of April, but before the sea-swims and BBQs start peeping on the horizon - that we start to prepare for summer. I don’t mean in a ‘I-need-to-become-bikini-body-ready’ way (because every body is a bikini body, we’re in 2025, for god’s sake). No, I mean in a: ‘how can I make this summer incredible?’ way. In the way we used to prep for summer, as teenagers, when we had six whole weeks stretching out in front of us like a promise, and we wanted to make it perfect (short shorts, jäger bombs, falling into teenage love). Right now, you have a whole month to prepare for summer. Here’s what you need to do to make it magical:

  • Refresh your clothes. Switch your winter to your summer wardrobe, and as you do so, make a pile of what doesn’t fit you (or what you don’t like anymore) to donate.

  • Make a fashion board on Pinterest (I hear that sheer layers and butter yellow are in, but you should pin anything you love).

  • Make a bucket list, like you did when you were a child (you get extra points if you do this in felt tip): climb a tree, swim in the sea, run 5k, make a cheesecake, plan a surprise party, make daisy chains, or friendship bracelets, or both.

  • Plan your summer reads. Invest in your summer shoes. Book in to get your hair or nails done. Learn how to fake tan (if you don’t already know). Find the perfect SPF for you.

• Make as many seasonal recipes as you possibly can, with vegetables like green beans, courgettes and peppers. If you add garlic, lemon and parmesan, you can (almost never) go wrong.

• And some point this month, actually go for a picnic. May is the time for picnics: it’s just warm enough, but not too hot (and there aren’t any wasps around). Just go and do it.

• Oh, and do something for someone else, too.

• This could be as simple as planting some sunflowers for your neighbours, or donating your clothes to your sister. You could join a local charity, volunteer in an Oxfam, or at a soup kitchen. There’s so much suffering happening, right now, and whilst it’s fun to create vision boards and imagine a peach-pink summer, it’s also hard to do, living as we do in this fractioning world.

• There’s something so cut off about our lives, in 2025. We’re all so connected - and so disconnected - at the same time. We listen to the news, and then we listen to the new Lorde single, and then we listen to our boss asking us to do a task, and we jump through all these different hoops, one by one, so many times in any given day.

• We know what’s going on - in parts of the world that are so far away that they’re almost impossible to imagine - but we also feel as though there’s nothing we can do to help.

• But doing something (even if it’s tiny) does help. You could donate £3, or just do something to bring a smile to someone else, this month. Because learning to live in kindness is one of the best things you can do for your own happiness - and May, with its sun-yellows, feels like the right time to remind yourself of this.

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Your May Soundtrack

From Spring beats to pre-gaming summer, welcome to your May soundtrack (it’s giving main character energy).

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Your May Reading List

The Virgin Suicides by Geoffrey Eugenides

Assembly by Natasha brown

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer

The Girls by Emma Cline

Luster by Raven Leilani

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Some recipes

This is from the BBC. It is—according to my aforementioned sister—the best cookie recipe. I made it this week and can attest.

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One final note:

If you’re feeling low, or you’re dreading the summer, for whatever reason, remember that happiness is not a constant state. It flickers, like a candle. It comes and goes like the tides. To pin it down would be to try and catch the ocean in your hands, to clasp it between trembling fingers. So let the grief overwhelm you. Let the heartbreak etch itself onto your soul. These feelings won’t last forever, I promise: one day, you’ll wake up feeling slightly lighter - if not happy - then, content.

I hope, this month, you find that: in the laughter of toddlers tasting ice cream for the first time, in the peonies that sit on your windowsill, opening slowly to the beauty of the world, in the moments of hope as you walk towards the bar, in some black dress, the night unspooling before you like a gift. In deciding on a spot for a picnic, in crunching crisps under a smudged sunset; in swiping on a new lipstick and opening a new book under the sun, I hope you find the slow pulse of contentment.

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P. S.

Posting this early, so you get it on the 1^st May – as such, there won’t be a newsletter this Sunday. Paid subs – let me know what you’d like me to write about for the next one. I love hearing from you.