Best summer reads 2015 - win £500 of books!

Wow, that is a fantastic collection!

My favourite thing about summer is sitting in the garden with a good book. If I can pick some strawberries and snack on them as well that is a bonus.

When the sun comes out, people smile, stop and chat, relax and look as if they are glad to be alive

When my children were younger I was always happy at the prospect of having them home for the long summer holiday. Now in the summer I love wandering down to the allotment with an excited grandson in tow and collecting the harvest.

My favourite thing about summer is the light nights and being able to sit in the garden and read as the day starts to cool down, a glass of pink champagne is quite pleasant too.

My favourite thing about Summer is simply the warmth!The light evenings are a bonus too, sitting out with friends having a coffee/wine and looking at the garden, especially when the coloured solar lights come on and it looks magical.

I also like the warmth and the sunshine- open windows and doors and being able to sit outside with a cup of coffee whenever the mood takes me.

I love being able to spend time outside without feeling cold and working in the garden.
The sun does just seem to lift my mood.

I love the long warm summer nights spent out in the garden with friends and family.

Driving down to the coast and and walking along a beach with my shoes off, dabbling my feet in the sea. Breathing in the fresh air and the tang of the sea, collecting sea shells to take home.

Today pretty much encapsulates so much of what I love about summer. I'm house and dog sitting in a village in Norfolk. It's a place I've never been before, so lots to explore. The dog is a beautiful Weimaraner, 84 years old in human terms, but full of life and energy. We were up and out early for our first walk of the day, on a perfect summer morning, sunny and warm, walking around fields and alongside a stream. (My own dog succumbed to old age last year, and I've really missed the walks)
Now we're both relaxing in the garden, me with a good book and a glass of wine....she dozing in the sunshine. Life really doesn't get much better.
Looks like we all love it... and make the most of it while it lasts!

Being at work all week, I really look forward to my precious weekends. Especially those idylic summer days when I can potter around in the garden followed by a cold lunch, washed down with a glass of something fizzy, ending in total relaxation with a wonderful book helping me escape from realife. Bliss.

Summer fruits such as peaches, apricots and strawberries, barbecues with friends, walks along the beach, family visiting, swimming in our small pool and then sitting drying in the sun with a good book!! Just some of the things I love about summer. Oh and not having to wear layers of clothes, just a t-shirt and shorts!!

Long summer evenings, enjoying sitting out in the garden listening to the birds, driving home through country lanes in that lovely golden light of early evening, BBQs with family and the chatter and squeals of children playing, dawdling in the park with the dog enjoying the warmth.....and Wimbledon.

I love the smell and sound of summer - the trees, plants, flowers, mown grass, the sea, seaweed, hedge cuttings, aircraft high up in the sky flying off somewhere exotic, laughter in the play park and many, many more. The smell I remember from childhood summers is that of a warm blazer when walking home from school in the hot sun; it is indelibly printed in my nostrils

Lots of sunshine, but with an occasional shower which has the distinctive dusty smell of summer rain! The joy of building sand castles with the grandchildren on our local beach, with only a 5minute walk to reach it.

Sitting on the garden swing in the evening with a gin and tonic letting the birdsong fill the garden.

I love picnics. I enjoy cooking picnic food and then putting it out as a big spread for friends and family.

My favourite thing about Summer is seeing the kids playing in the garden and running around enjoying the fresh air.

Light mornings, cherries & Prosecco.

The smell of fresh cut grass, making strawberry jam and hearing the sound of water and giggling children in the garden. In the evening a glass of chilled wine.

Pimms on the lawn

Can't beat an ice cream on the beach in the sun

Love the longer summer evening to enjoy the great out doors with my family and a BBQ where i don't have to cook

Plonking my grandson into his pushchair and just going, without the need for layers of clothing on him and layers of warmth and rain proof items on pushchair.
Then when we are back and he has gone home, sitting in the garden with a well earned drink - of the alcoholic variety of course!