Summer Holidays - Like When We Were Kids

"Summer afternoon—summer afternoon;

to me those have always been the two most

beautiful words in the English language."

HENRY JAMES

The first day of summer dawned beautifully, with clear blue skies and a sunrise worth waking up for. As the old saying goes, let's start as we mean to continue. 

These last days of June often remind me of my childhood when the warmer days would beguile me as I squirmed at my desk in the classroom, feeling the breeze through an open window and yearning to be outside in the warm sunshine, secretly counting the days until summer holidays. Author George Eliot wrote that the days were longer back then, that summer afternoons were spacious. Oh yes, and they were alive with possibility for exploring, playing with our friends, and making grand plans for summertime adventures.

Thinking about those long ago days, I have a yearning in my soul to try and capture some of that wondrous feeling this summer. To pretend we're on school summer holidays and dream about possibility and playing with our friends, making a few plans for little adventures and maybe some bigger ones.

The other day I was in the kitchen peeling a bowl of hard boiled eggs for lunch. To make the Irish egg salad sandwiches I mentioned in an earlier post HERE. And then the wildish thought came to me—why not phone our dear friends (it's quarter to noon) and say we're bringing Irish egg salad sandwiches for lunch, put the tea on, hope you're free, hope you haven't eaten yet. They were right ready to join in, with V– on the phone and J– excitedly chirping in the background, 'Oh yes, come!' So we packed a picnic—the egg salad, of course, fresh Cobbs 'everything' buns, a large Washington 'Cosmic Crisp' apple to cut into slices, a bag of Miss Vickie's Sweet Chili and Sour Cream potato chips, and a small packet of Lotus Biscoff cookies for dessert.

A good time was had by all. Eating and chatting about everything and nothing.

After lunch we stepped into the garden to see how things were beginning to grow. I mentioned to my girlfriend how much I was enjoying the clouds of blue flax blooming out there (see photo above). She said it had reseeded itself and was now growing in several spots... as if it had all been in the grand plan. It looked so lovely. I love when that happens. When little and big surprises show up in the garden giving us those unexpected delights of beauty and scent.

Our spur-of-the-moment visit hit the spot in more ways than just eating egg salad sandwiches to satisfy hunger. It scratched an itch for something I found myself longing for from summers long ago. That's what I want this summer. A feeling of being on summer holidays, with spontaneous happy events that don't need a lot of planning but turn an ordinary day into something buoyant and soul satisfying. I'm hoping that we'll have many more of them over the next few couple of months.

When I started this post, I thought I didn't have a thing to write about, but here I am, happily typing this on the longest evening of the year so it can post first thing in the morning. The sun is still up, the robins are singing, and now I can contentedly call it a day. But first, I'm off to watch the sunset and the long twilight.

It's my wish for you that you'll also experience that sense of childhood summer holidays as summer begins. With room to play and dream and whatever else makes summer special for you. I think next time, I might chat about summer holiday reading, because I LOVE reading on my summer holidays. Until then....

❦

Here's wishing you a beautiful day,

Brenda

Photo credits:

Brenda Leyland @ It's A Beautiful Life

My Summer blog schedule:

I post on Fridays