the homebody club: firefly fields

welcome to the homebody club: firefly fields. named after the feeling of mid july nostalgia. between the firefly glow, the flash of fireworks, the golden sunshine, and glistening water, july is a month filled with light. the middle month of the summer, and one that holds so much. in this post we’re going over the new & full moons this month, a new moon ritual, the history of how july got it’s name, ancient folklore for the month and more.

july, the midsummer month, and the one that truly embodies the season the most. july is peak summer. it makes me think of golden days spent at the beach, and warm nights spent at the drive-in. it’s a month of sea, sand, and sun. a month where time feels endless—it lulls you into thinking anything and everything is possible.

in my mind, july has always felt endless. as a kid, it was the month where school was both a distant memory and an idea so far on the horizon i couldn’t even see it. wasn’t it glorious how, as a kid, two months until school still felt like forever? and now two months seems to slip by in the blink of an eye. it was also often the laziest but somehow most full month of the summer. school let out in june, and we usually went on a summer road trip in early august, so july was the month that belonged to me most—where every day could unfold into whatever it wanted to. a day at the lake. getting ice cream and wandering around with the other neighbourhood kids. a beach day melting into a bonfire. of course, adulthood takes some of that away—work doesn’t care if it’s july and the month should belong to you. but the feeling still remains in my heart, woven into it, a feeling so deeply ingrained.

july is also one of the most nostalgic months in my memory. the feeling of drive-in nights, a callback to a bygone era. fun fairs, with popcorn and cotton candy sticky on my fingers. fireworks lighting up the same skies i looked up at as a child. its a month that almost feels vintage to me, i’m not sure why. it’s an abstract kind of feeling. but in my mind july is 80s summer slashers, cryptidcore, summer camps that have been standing since the 60s and 70s almost unchanged. like july belongs to a different decade even when it's happening right now. maybe it's the drive-ins, or the fairs, or the fact that some things about summer just don't change no matter how old you get—the smell of sunscreen, the sound of an ice cream truck down the street, fireworks on a warm night. july doesn't feel like a modern month to me. it feels like something handed down, a version of summer that's been repeating itself for decades, and every year i get to step back into it for a little while.

and… hear me out… july holds a mix of moods. because while i’m fully soaking up the summer and enjoying that nostalgia, somewhere in the corner of my mind is an autumn tiktok audio playing on repeat, while images of pumpkins and leaves and scarves and hot coffee dance through my head.

the rest of this post is for paid subscribers. in this almanac we’ll talk about july’s moon phases, a new moon ritual, ancient history, folklore of the month, the celtic tree of the month and more.