Happy First Day of Summer!

The longest day of the year

Hand-painted “SUMMER” lettering inspired by some summer flowers that should start blooming in my garden any moment: black-eyed susans, common milkweed, roses, zinnias, nasturtium, native hibiscus, lavender, poppy mallow, and amaranth

It is officially summer!

My gull friends and I wish you a happy summer solstice!

I have a pretty difficult relationship with this season. Every year I say I am going to become a “summer person” and do all of the fun summer things, and every year I am OVER IT after about three consecutive days of 90 degree+ heat. I have never been a fan of heat and humidity but medication changes in recent years have made me seriously heat intolerant. I have worked hard to adapt, learning to always carry a hat and water bottle, actually apply sunscreen, and avoid polyester and other unnatural fibers at all costs. I also try to wake up extra early in the summer months to enjoy the outdoors before it heats up, then whenever possible I escape into the air-conditioned indoors until the evening. All of these things help but I still hate the perpetually sticky feeling of summer skin, the chub rub, the extra frizzy hair, the abundance of crowds in every recreation spot, the mosquitos and ticks, the smell of rotting trash….

A comic detailing the last time I got a REALLY bad case of the chub rub. Soon after I learned about Megababe and it changed my life! Sadly I still have to remember to apply it….

But there are also things I love: swimming in cool water under dazzling sunshine, afternoon thunder storms, lush forests and gardens, dappled light, fireflies, butterflies, fresh produce, the smell of someone having a barbecue (especially when I am invited!), reading on the beach, sitting around a campfire…

Everything feels a little bit better on a boat!

I am definitely a shoulder season girlie, a passionate lover of the gentler seasons of spring and autumn and a reluctant friend to summer and winter. But the extreme seasons can contain extreme delights! I am trying my best to learn to love them for what they are.

I honestly believe that if I lived within a short walk of a beautiful forest and a swimmable body of water my summer hatred would completely disappear. I was born to swim in the water and walk under under ancient trees!

I realized many years ago that magical moments rarely happen on their own. In order to live a life full of magical moments, you have to foster them. On many occasions I have created checklists of things I wanted to accomplish during the summer, with mixed results. This year I used my birthday as an excuse to share my list with friends in hopes of having companions to help me check some of these things off. After all, magical moments are exponentially more magic when shared! Several folks showed interest and a few made plans with me soon after. I am hopeful that packing the season with the parts I love will help me forget about the parts I hate.

Ask me about THE BEST ICE CREAM IN THE WORLD! No gatekeeping!

In that spirit, I thought I would also share my list here. Maybe it will inspire you to make your own. If we are friends, family, or neighbors and any of these sound appealing, let’s set something up!