Wednesday 25 January 2017

10 great things about summer


I saw this post shared in a blogging group a couple of weeks ago where the writer wanted to flip around her negative feelings about winter. We were right in the middle of a heatwave here in Queensland (defined as 3 or more days of higher than average temperatures), so it inspired me to take note of the post and borrow the idea for myself. Because while I don't always whinge about the heat on facebook, I don't enjoy it at all.

BBQs

Cooking and eating outside is great at any time of the year, but hot summer days when the kitchen feels like an oven is a great excuse for filling the gas bottle and making potato salad.

Airconditioning

Before Steve and I met, I didn't have airconditioning. Chloe and I survived summer with pedestal fans and lots of showers. When we moved into our first house together, we installed an airconditioner into the kids room before we did the rest of the house. Now we're about to upgrade our window system to a split system that's big enough to cool down the whole house. We're happy to pay our electricity bill.

Cool shopping centres

I love walking from the car park into a shopping centre. That first hit of cold sometimes stops me in my tracks, because I've forgotten that it is possible to not be hot.

A photo posted by Cate (@purplecrazymum) on
Ice Cream

While icy poles are a great way for the kids to cool down on summer days, I prefer the creaminess of ice cream. It doesn't really do much to cool me down, but it does taste amazing! On heatwave days, I love plain vanilla ice cream (with a spoon or two of Milo sprinkled on top), but if it's just a regular summer day you can't go past a chocolate Drumstick!

Paddling at the beach

Despite growing up with a pool in the backyard, and spending summers at the beach, I'm not a fan of swimming in Queensland waters. We've been hearing lots of stories this summer about jellyfish on the Moreton Bay coast, but in past summers I've often dragged the family out early to walk along the waters edge and cool down feet (also good for cooling down tempers.)

Luke warm showers

Even in summer I like my showers warm. I just can't have them cooler, but if the kids are being particularly obnoxious I've been known to throw them under cool water and forget about them. Which is great for my sanity as well. Sprinklers are also good for this.

Shorts

I'm owning it. I usually wear long pants or jeans, even in summer. In my university years I was known to wear skirts or capri pants, but not shorts. Until this year. I randomly stumbled on some rayon-flowy-cotton shorts in Target before Christmas, so bought a pair. Then I actually wore them, and feel in love with them, so bought 3 more pairs. Now my white legs and I have become converts again!

Shady backyards

We've never spent much time in our backyard, until last year. Always busy, have babies, wasting time, staying cool. But, thanks to our jacaranda tree, our backyard is very well shaded, even with the sun so high in summer time. I spent over two hours out the back this morning, not realising how late it was when I finally came in because it was so cool. If only I could find a way to beat the mozzies!

Ice

Even the dogs have suffered with the ridiculous heatwaves we've been having. So I've been dropping lots of ice in their water bowl. Daisy likes to gently suck each cube out of the bowl and crunch on it on the stairs, Gus doesn't care and just drinks gallons of cold water.

Pimms

I've never been a big drinker, but I enjoy the occasional glass of wine or bourbon. But I haven't figured out how to drink bourbon without coke (which I stopped drinking 3 years ago), and wine warms up too quickly in summer. Before Christmas I spotted this post from The Daily Recovery, and pondered. And then I kept seeing Pimms mentioned, and decided that we had to give it a try. Now, I prefer my Pimms with ginger beer instead of ginger ale (it really does taste different) and apple or orange (but cucumber tastes pretty good, too), but this drink has brought a refreshment to our summer backyard evenings that I just wasn't getting from lemon, lime and bitters.

Actually, it's not that hard to find the good in the heat. 

What good can you see in the most adverse weather conditions?
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2 comments

  1. Great to read how you are finding the positives in difficult circumstances. Here, it's minus 3C, and I'd give (nearly anything) to spend a day without feeling cold at some point. Positives? The freezing fog has clothes all our trees in stunning white hoar frost; the multi-fuel stove is on and I don't have to go out; I get to sip a Martini and catch up with you :).

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  2. Hello, I can add 'driving in the car' I love how cool my car is and so sometimes drive the kids to far away pools and beaches when it's boiling just to have the cool time out of the hot house!

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