Recently I was watching Season 8 of Shetland on Britbox, when a scene revealed that a long-ago mixtape had become a symbol of endless love and unbreakable bonds. In the series subplot, DI Ruth Calder is reluctantly reunited with her teenage boyfriend, Cal Innes. Cal’s older brother, James Innes, gives Ruth a mixtape she had made for Cal on his birthday when they were teenagers. Now in their forties and reconnected by tragedy, James reveals that Cal played that mixtape every night.

A mixtape. I don’t think I’d thought about mixtapes since their heyday. Yes, long before Spotify playlists, MP3’s, and yadda, yadda, yadda, there were cassettes that contained a curation of youth-fueled emotion in the form of customized cassettes. The process of making a mixtape was labor intensive — selection, timing (start-stop fingers poised), and the voodoo of continuity—it could take hours to get them just right. In the 80’s I was by no means a teenager any longer, but I received my share of mixtapes from admirers, complete with liner notes (if someone really cared). We communicated a lot of feelings with our friends and current or potential romantic partners through the songs we chose to include. A glimpse into the heart and an ultra-personal worldview was revealed through song titles, lyrics, and the artists we let “sing our lives with their words.”

The old school mixtapes were all about the universal need for connection, much like writing a blog. I’d like to think of this week’s blog as an imaginary mixtape. It’s a conceptual collection of made-up songs and artists to tell the story of how I am spending my early summer days (some of my readers might remember from last year at this time how much I love the month of June). The timing of my day is by no means as critical as the timing of the mixtape. I don’t have to worry about cutting off my coffee too soon or missing the start of a flower’s bloom. My retirement-fueled dedication to slow living has taken care of that. My June imaginary mixtape is like the real mixtapes of old: it reveals my current attention and it communicates a desire for connection with you, readers. It’s my hope that you’ll have time to give a “listen” to my imaginary mixtape, my “songs” about loving the ordinary days to the start of summer. A warm, early summer morning or afternoon is just about perfect for the tracks on this June Mixtape.

So here is my imaginary mixtape of June joy tracks, complete with liner notes. You won’t find any of these songs on Spotify — my "song tracks" are completely made up to serve as metaphors for how I am feeling and what I am paying attention to in June.

Track One: “Coffee on the Deck” by Blue Skies.
I chose this track to represent my start to the day. I start everyday with coffee, but there is nothing like sipping my coffee on the deck, under the blue skies of the early morning. It’s a quiet and contemplative time, with the most inspiring soundtrack of birdsong in the background from our crab apple trees. Wrens, robins, and cardinals sing away as together we welcome another day. I try to use my coffee time to stay in the moment and practice gratitude. That sounds cliche, but it’s something I do “on purpose” (thank you, Leanne).

Track Two: “Let it All Out” by The Morning Pages.
Playing this on repeat, as usual. It’s a brief track — three pages, no more, no less. I really don’t know how I would function without my Morning Pages. Writing them outside in the morning sun is a little slice of heaven. But what’s most important is getting my thoughts out at the beginning of the day to clear my head, so I will be ready to enjoy, or at least take on, whatever might be ahead.

Track Three: “Bloom for Me” by Perfect Garden.
It seems like each time I listen, I hear something new in the colorful lyrics of our garden flowers. Right now in this week of June is the fresh, perfumy scent-sations of the Mock Orange. Last week, it was the deep purples of the Siberian Iris, followed by what seems like 50 shades of pink peonies. And the flowers seem to bloom all for me (and June of course).

Track Four: “Eric” by The Dumetellas.
Nothing but affectionate annoyance for this track. There are so many of the catbird’s songs that I enjoy. Usually eminating from the tall, flowering bushes, lilac and spirea, next to our deck, the catbird has one song that had become a joke between my husband and I — the incessant calling of some phantom bird friend named “Eric” (or “airwick” as the catbird likes to say it). It’s the June novelty song on this mixtape, and it always makes us laugh when we hear it (which is too frequently).

Track Five: “Page after Page” by The Genres.
My June summer days are full of this track, chronicling the 10 to 20 pages of outdoor reading snatched here and there throughout the day and throughout the backyard. I read non-fiction books about writing in my little reading hut, highlighter and post-its in hand. Fiction might be read on the garden bench or while lounging in the steamer chairs with a glass of wine — as the music plays, the backyard dissolves as I am transported into whatever setting a current author has created for her characters (most frequently, it’s somewhere in England).

Track Six: “Check this Out” by Circulation Explorer.
Blasting this tune every Wednesday at my local library where I have been volunteering at the circulation desk. This is the library of my childhood, of my teenage years, and then off and on during my adult life. Now it’s the library of The Precious Days, and I am so happy to have these three hours in my life once a week.

Track Seven: “Flex It Boogie” by The Bone Babes.
This is a fun and upbeat track. Twice a week I get together with a large group of women, age 50 to 90, who come together in a Lilith Fair of osteoporosis prevention (I am hoping for reversal).

Track Eight: “Walk it off” by Complex Circuit.
This track gets my blood pumping for sure. As spring turns to early June summer, walking the circuit at the local sports complex is my walk of choice. Two loops, three miles, and I am ready to head home with a strong heart rate and a head full of ideas.

Track Nine: “Hit it Over the Wall” by The Boys of Summer.
Summer days wouldn’t be complete without a baseball track, right? I still love the crackle of an a.m. radio, sitting outside in a lawn chair with a cold drink on a June afternoon or next to the glow of citronella candles and a pre-solstice sky in the early evening on the deck. Although I am missing John Sterling’s end-of-game signature closing (“Thaaaaaaaaaahhhh Yankees, win!!!), my 2024 Yankees have been stepping up to the plate to do their thing (as Judge would say).

Track Ten: “The Poets of Prose” by Pathography.
This moody track may lead to its very own mixtape, or at least a blog post. I have been reading everything I can get my hands on by and about Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon. Recently a story I read by Joyce Carol Oates (Lovely, Dark, Deep) set in Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf right here in my home state, put my obsession into a bit of perspective. Oates has coined the term “pathography,” which made me wonder why I was becoming so compelled to know more and more about these now deceased husband and wife poets. The links are worth the read (read Oates’ linked short story first, then the linked article in Commonweal Magazine if you are looking for something to do on a June afternoon).

What are the imaginary songs of your June summer days? Give it a try in the Comments. Together we could make quite a mixtape of The Precious Days of summer!