10 on the 10th

Leslie over at Once Upon a Time and Happy Every After has invited us to share 10 favourite things about summer.

Now I strongly suspect that this will not be a normal summer but let's hope a few of my favourite things will still happen.

Take me back!  I don't think we'll be seeing a foreign beach this year but maybe we'll venture out to the British coast.  I love the beach - the sound of the waves on the shore, the sand between your toes, it all sums up summer for me. Our nearest beach from here is about 90 minutes away but I think we'll leave it a little longer before we head out there (I need to know the public loos will be open before I go too far afield!)

Summer food - why does everything taste so much better when you are eating it outdoors in the sunshine?  Our friend Richard makes the most delicious authentic paella and we always say that it isn't summer until we have been round to their house for the first paella of the year!  This was last year's paella, oh boy I could just eat a plate of that now.

Summer cocktails - sitting in the sunshine, iced drink in hand, total relaxation ... happy days.  One thing that lockdown has not affected thankfully!

Summer clothes!  Isn't it great to get the sleeveless dresses out and the summer sandals?  After months of layering up and trying to keep warm, it's so lovely to feel the sun on your skin.  Not sure I'll be brave enough to try and rock the polka dot bikini trend that I so easily carried off when I was 4 though!

Dusting off the patio furniture and sitting under a shade reading a book - isn't that the best place to spend an afternoon at home?

Seeing the garden come into flower - it's so lovely to see new life springing up in the flower borders.

Not having to wear socks - hello flip flops!

Pretty sunsets.  No this is not from my back garden, this is from last year in Dubrovnik but even here in England we get some colourful skies as the sun sets in the evening during the summer.

Spending time just doing nothing.  Sitting.  Thinking. Relaxing.  Somehow it all seems better when you're in the open air.

Longer dog walks.  I never take it for granted how lucky I am to live so close to the open countryside - this is about 10 minutes from my front door, green fields as far as the eye can see.

I will miss some aspects of my 'normal' summer.  The beach holiday, the long weekend city break that we used to take in early September.  But so long as the British weather cooperates, all is not lost and we can still enjoy the things we normally do.

How about you?  What 10 things do you think of when you think of summer?