Reasons I Love (& Hate) Spring.

The winter blues are finally disappearing into the distance. Layers are coming off, skies are turning blue, birds are chirping in the trees and people are emerging from their winter isolation. I am a sun lover. I look forward to the end of winter with eager anticipation. I yearn for the Spring and Summer months to start. They are always magnificent in my mind.

There are many things I love about this time of year. I thought I’d share them with you.

Things I Love about Spring (and Summer)

• My Garden. It really comes to life. All the work through the previous late summer and autumn months starts to show. The transformation is stunning. The browns and empty patched fill with greens of all shades, young plants poking through the soil and leaves sprouting on trees. I love to watch and experience the gifts erupting from the earth. It is almost like it’s saying; sorry about the sucky winter months, here’s a little gift to say sorry!

• Sunshine. The warm glow of gentle spring sunshine thawing away the last of the winter chill. The feeling of sunshine on my skin. This can’t be trumped. It makes me feel alive, healthier and more optimistic.
• Bulbs. These little secrets hide away without a trace through the autumn and winter months and then surprise you with an abundance of colour in unlikely places. A flash of daffodils along the motorway. A crocus covered grass bank, gentle snowdrops under the trees. These little treats are the heralds of the season change and I eagerly anticipate them each year.
• Blue skies. After months of 50 shades of Grey, it is stunning to wake to a bright blue sky. There is something fabulous about a clear blue sky or one with gentle white clouds drifting by.
• Flip flops or barefoot. I both love and loathe shoes. Although I thoroughly enjoy shoes ( I have many, many pairs) I still love the feel of wearing flip flops with pretty painted toenails. I love walking on the grass and feeling the ground beneath my feet. After months of having something between me and the earth, it feels free to get back in touch with the ground.
• NO coats, hats, scarves, gloves. Yay to this. I love that it takes a moment to leave the house. No more layering up with gloves and hats and heavy restrictive coats. I love that we swap knitted scarves for flimsy cotton or silk and that their function is fashion rather than function. It also means far less to carry and keep track of when you don’t have 3 children to bundle up every time you head out the door.
• Shorts and summer dresses…seeing my children’s bare legs makes me think of carefree childhood.
• Picnics.  Cue happy dance. What is not to like about eating outside? No floor to sweep afterwards, or tables to wipe. Somehow food always tastes better outdoors. We also enjoy each other’s company more when we’re all sitting on a picnic rug with the food spread out in the middle. It makes for a lovely sociable meal.
• BBQs. Meat cooked on the BBQ can’t be beaten. I love the way meat tastes when it’s been cooked open an open fire. And again, everyone sits together and outdoors to enjoy the meal. A lovely social way to share a meal.
• Camping. Setting up your tent, cooking on a gas stove, no electronic distraction, late nights around the fire, marshmallow roasting and campfire games and snuggling in sleeping bags make wonderful family memories. It breaks from the mundane of four walls. It provides us with a way to reconnect as a family after our usual hectic home pace.
• Light evenings. The sunsets really late here. I love that the children get home and are able to play outside until bedtime. The days seem slower and easier and less rushed.
• Laundry drying outside on the line. This is a big thing for me. I love how washing smells when it has dried outside on the line. I love that I did not use the tumble drier. I love that I can wash 5 loads in one day and they will be dry and ready for packing away by evening.
• Walking or cycling to school. Let’s face it. Walking or cycling to school in the wet miserable rain is no fun for anyone. It is so much nicer and less stressful for everyone to walk and enjoy the sights along the way. It clears the head and gets the blood pumping which is proven to aid concentration in class.
•  The long end of the school year holiday = more family time. As a stay at home parent, I love that I get to enjoy my children for extended periods of time. We relax and take our time. Tempers are lost less often, arguments diminish, we work to our own schedule-no rushing to this and that.
• Hanging baskets. Hanging baskets and boxes in full bloom are one of the first things I noticed when I moved to the UK. I had never seen so many colours and been in a place where the streets lights were decorated with baskets overflowing with gorgeous flowers. I have baskets at home and thoroughly enjoy watching them blossom throughout the spring and summer months.
• Festivals, fairs and outdoor events. Our local area suddenly seems to wake as if from hibernation. There are beer festivals, farm visits, festivals of music and food, outdoor shows to watch. There is suddenly so much to do and see each weekend.
• People are happier/more alive/outside. Where I live, winter means people tend to hide out at home more often. You don’t see people in the streets, at the park and on the village green. I don’t even see my neighbours much as we hurry from car to front door. In the warmer months, everyone emerges from their homes and they smile more, walk more slowly, and just generally seem happier.
• Open windows and doors. After months of it being too cold to leave windows and doors open, it is marvellous to throw open the windows and doors and literally blow the cobwebs of winter away. My home feels and smells fresher and I love how airy it is.
• Butterflies. wonderful little creatures. I thoroughly enjoy seeing these pretty little things flit around my garden. I especially plant flowers I know will attract them and delight in watching them-as do my children.
• Water play, inflatable pools and slip ‘n slides. The craziness of water hoses, buckets of water, filling the pool and dusting off the slip and slide is a definite favourite…we have great times whiling away the summer afternoons messing about with water in the garden.
• Ice cream cones. Well, do I need to say more. Few things compare to sitting in the hot sunshine, eating soft-serve ice cream from a cone. Bliss.
• Warmth. The absence of cold! When you have experienced enough cold to chill your bones, spending days without feeling a hint of cold is heavenly.
• Now that I have shared what I like the best about the Spring and summer months, there are unbelievably many things I hate about the very same months.

Things I Hate about Spring and Summer

• Weeds. Grrrr, as much joy as I get from my beautiful garden, is as much annoyance the constant weeding brings. I swear I weed one day and wake up and the suckers are back exactly where I just removed them from.
• Birdsong at 4 am. I mean who needs sleep, right? I am a terribly light sleeper. Birds singing at 4 am wakes me and then that’s it. Too late to fall back asleep properly and definitely too early to get up for the day. Cue lying in bed feeling irritated!
• Sunblock. Not the actual products or what it does but rather that every time you leave the house, it’s sunblock applying routine time. Often this application process is on children who profess to hate the feel, smell, texture, colour (yes really) and it becomes a battle.
• Light mornings. You need blackout blinds. Making sure you completely blackout the windows otherwise your children will get up with the sun at 4:30 am. I have already had fun explaining to my son that he needs to follow the time on the clock, not the light level outside. He has woken me a few times to say, “Is it morning time. The sun is up.” (This at 5ish am when he has woken to use the toilet)
• D.I.Y and home improvement season: I love all the things that happen to the house. Fresh paint, fixing things that have grown tired over the winter months. BUT I loathe the disruption ( and often extra cleaning) it causes.
• Light evenings. Have you ever tried to convince your children it’s bedtime when the sun is still high in the sky at 8 pm?
• Bonfires. Everyone suddenly decides to burn a year’s worth of garden cuttings spoiling one of my favourite things about Spring and summer-laundry drying on the line!
• Cricket season: For my family, warm dry days means cricket season. This is not a quick sport. It means long Saturdays alone with the kids.
• Shaving my legs. Yes well, don’t get me wrong, I don’t turn gorilla-like in the winter but at least I can cover up if I don’t really feel like shaving more than once a week. No can do when it’s warm out and summer dresses and shorts are the dress code.
• Flies & midges. From a relatively bug-free existence to all the creepy crawlies and buzzing insects inside and out. Swatting when eating outdoors, protecting your drinks from drowning bugs, dodging bees or wasps and been bitten by midges.
• Spring cleaning. Although it is lovely to open your home after months of shutting it, you suddenly notice how dirty the windows are, how dusty the shelves have become, how grubby the walls are looking. Bright sunshine suddenly highlights all those bits that you may have neglected or not noticed in the cold months. So, you are forced to do a deep clean-a good thing mind you- but it’s still cleaning!

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Are there any things you Love or Hate about the Spring and Summer months? I’d love to hear what your take is.