Best summer reads 2015 - win £500 of books!

My favourite thing about summer is the smell...

Getting up early on a summer morning and breathing the air that no one else has breathed yet, that sweet, damp, gentle air that the birds are thrilled to sing about.
Then, as the hours pass, the awakening of the 'Summer folk' who suddenly feel the need to snip and tidy and cut and coax their gardens into submission.The smell of cut grass and the woody sappy scent of straggly growth ,stripped from the Mother plant.

Late afternoon, the nectar drips from the plants with a sweet, sweet smell that is intoxicating and daring. Linen smells of sunshine as it lazily sways on the line, and on the thermals of air, a hint of the ripening strawberries at the bottom of the garden.

Early evening, a warm stone smell as the patio stores the day's heat.
The lovely tomatoey smell as plants are given their first watering, and the soapy shampoo smell of tired children, just bathed and sunkissed.

Night..and the deep earth smell of rest and damp and hearty warmth, and a building excitement of the promise of another summer day.

And all the time, the smell of memories, of beaches and family and sea and chips and happiness.
Ahh, the smell of summer.

My best thing about Summer, was travelling to the USA to meet the Girl I'm going to marry in October this year!! That was 2010, and I've neer looked back, I'm even moving there permanently, and we are going to start our own business!

I love to be alone working on the garden and being rewarded with home grown vegetables and summer fruit. Victoria plums straight from the tree, luscious strawberries and cream, mmmm.

Daylight

Staying indoors and reading, of course . It's 105 in Arizona, a trade for the wonderful winters,here . We can bake ccookies in our cars!!!!!

Sitting in the pub garden with friends enjoying a drink or two. My eldest DGC coming to stay for a week. Leaving off my thermal underwear (hopefully).

My favourite thing about summer is the long days - once supper's all out of the way, it's like having an extra afternoon for reading/cycling/walking or whatever you fancy!

Living by the sea makes the summer very special. I'm 'Sea-side Nannie' and I love taking my grandchildren to the beach where we can play for hours outside in the sunshine. Summer days are longer which gives me more time to do all the things I love doing like reading in the garden with a coffee after lunch then a spot of weeding and back to my book as the sun sets over the trees.

Long summer days with my grandsons during the school holidays

The dawn chorus.

My favourite thing about the summer is the longer days, lighter nights, the sun shining (hopefully), picking my crop of strawberries, home grown rhubarb and gooseberries and watching my veggie patch bloom.

I love being outside in the summer - going for lovely long walks, sitting in the garden reading my book, drying the washing on the line. I also seem to have more energy when the sun is shining, and tackle all the jobs I have been putting off during the winter.

My favorite thing about summer is being able to take my Grand-Children to the beach for picnics and fun :D

I love just being outside during the summer, my favourite thing is sitting in a deckchair on a sandy beach with a good book...perfect!

Everyone is so much more relaxed: stopping to chat to people we meet in the street, eating and drinking at street cafés, enjoying not being swaddled in layers of clothing. Roll on the holidays...

Great collection of books -and fab prize! I love Summer ,and I always enjoy taking the family to the seaside ! Donkey rides ,fish and chips ,fairground rides ,paddling in the sea -bliss! As long as it doesn't rain !

Not needing to wear so many layers of clothes, just go out as you are and feel the warmth on my skin.

Nothing more relaxing than sitting in my deckchair with the sun beating down on me, with a nice cold glass of wine enjoying a good book.

my favourite thing is sitting in the garden with my family reading a good book

My favourite thing about summer is what I'm doing at this very moment- spending time with my family, by the sea.
The year flies past with our busy lives and a week at the coast allows us a chance to reconnect and rejuvenate.

The warmer weather, light nights, sweet juicy strawberries and raspberries.

The sun.. The brightness and the warmth it brings.

Looking out over my garden.
Working in my garden and seeing plants grow.
Just pottering in the garden and doing some deadheading.
Smelling all the intoxicating and the subtle flower smells alike.
Smell of soil after rain on parched earth.
Sitting in the garden with a book and a glass of red, or beer, I am not fussy.
The enormously long hours of daylight, even getting up in the night (usually 4 or 5 times lol) I can see my garden as it never seems to get dark.
Dawn chorus.
I do get out of the garden, honest, but I dont want to fill another 5 pages with all the other summer joys out there.

The best summer's day starts with breakfast under the grape vine (coming along nicely, I notice ... lots of grapes in Autumn). An extended breakfast, fruit and cereal, with a newspaper or good book. Then a potter around the garden to see what's out and what needs doing (another day, maybe), before heading into the studio to look at my latest project and consider my next moves. It helps to let the unconscious mind rummage around a problem, I find.
A cuppa in the garden, perhaps some knitting - Lunchtime already!
After lunch it's too hot to stay outdoors, so into the studio for some serious work. Hours later I emerge, creative itch well and truly scratched, to whatever I can find for dinner (yup, forgotten to get anything out of the freezer again), hopefully eaten outside. More reading - summer is a good time to really get into a meaty novel - before bed with the windows wide open and the duvet thrown off, as like as not.
Perfect Summer's day!

I love relaxing in the garden, the smell of freshly cut grass and spending lots of quality time with family. Summer definitely brings everyone together.