Where Bloggers Live: My Five Favorite Things About Summer
Welcome to Where Bloggers Live: 2025! Happy New Year! “Where Bloggers Live” started out kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…with bloggers! We all like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes, interests, and lives, so every month this wonderful group of seven bloggers family of amazing women shares their work-spaces, homes, towns, and thoughts, with posts based on specific prompts. It’s been so interesting over the years to see the different ways each of us interpret the topics.
Let me be clear: summer is not my favorite season. I don’t thrive in heat. Or humidity. Or blinding sunlight. But even I have to admit—there are things about summer that I really do love.
Here are five of them:
1. Summer Blooms
Flowers everywhere. Garden tours, roses blooming through picket fences, buckets of cut flowers at roadside stands. Potted plants on the patio. Summer is lush and floral…and I love that.
2. The Beach
Okay, I love the beach year-round. But a summer beach day is its own special thing.
It starts early…pre-8 a.m., slipping past an unmanned toll booth, stealing free entry like some kind of coastal criminal. The beach is quiet. I can set up wherever I want (which is where the ocean comes almost to my feet). No crowds yet. Just me, the waves, smooth sand, and a few gulls waiting for their morning meal.
The day unfolds slowly: dozing in the sun, dunking in the water, waking up sweaty and salty. The ice cream cart guy singing his song: Ice Cream! Get your ice cream here! Fudgesicles! Popsicles! Fuuuudgy Wudgy Bars! I eavesdrop on the family next to me. I watch never-ending games of beach paddleball. Pretzels arrive with a friend. The seasoned fries from the concession stand are perfect. My cheeks get just a little sunburned.
And the ride home with air conditioning and radio blasting is heaven. Yeah. I really do love summer beach days.
3. Ease of Dressing
Winter dressing is a logistical nightmare. Layers upon layers: “Do I need a sweater under this?” “What about gloves?” “Should I bring a backup scarf just in case?” “Light jacket? Medium jacket? Heavy jacket? Forget it, I’ll bring them all.”
Summer? So easy.
Put on dress. Leave house.
That’s it. No coat, no “oops I forgot my ___.” You forgot nothing. You are fully dressed in one step. It’s a tiny daily miracle.
4. Long Days
It’s like we spend ten months waiting for two glorious ones when the days stretch out loonnggg.
Even though I also adore winter evenings when I’m in my nightgown and on the sofa in front of the tv by 5pm, there’s something about long summer nights that’s just magical.
Dinner on the patio in the long shadows at 7:30. A walk at 8. Sunset that lingers until almost 9pm. Summer days give us the extra time we need to just breathe….
5. Eating Outdoors
This might be my favorite of all.
The moment I see a cafe owner dragging tables out onto the sidewalk, I feel joy.
Brunch with a friend at an awning-shaded table. French toast. Brûléed grapefruit. Bottomless mimosas. Enjoying the food, the company, the fresh air, the people show parading past. Life is good on those days.
And here in Korea, heading out after dinner to a crowded, noisy pojang macha, sitting at tiny plastic tables under the stars, drinking and laughing the night away.
So no, summer’s not my favorite season. But it’s got its charms.
I hope you’ll take a look at my friends’ blogs as well, to see what their favorite things are about summer…
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Em at Dust and Doghair
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Leslie at Once Upon a Time Happily Ever After
Sally at Within a World of My Own
Lisa Elliott
I love long summer days. Here in middle Alabama, the daylight comes early – a little after five and it is dark by 8:15 ish right now. I love it!
bettyewp
Yeah. Sunrise here right now is 5a but it’s getting light before that. I’ve been waking up super early with the light, it’s nice. I don’t think it tsyas late quite as late as you…
jodie
I love all of these things too, but for us, they all happen in the spring and fall, LOL.
Although there are some places that have misters for eating outside, but the AC is better in 110 degrees.
And, being that we are so far south, our days aren’t as long. I kinda miss that.
XOXO
Jodie
bettyewp
I have to say, I never understood the appeal of misters. I try so hard to stay dry (cuz I sweat so much), that to be intentionally spritzing myself with water? No. Maybe if I was at the beach. But at a cafe/restaurant? No. Plus, “mist” is really just humidity, and my hair would be a wreck. Ha ha.
I can never get a handle on what parts of the world stay light later. Like where Katie is in FL, overall stays light later than when I was on Long Island. Like, noticeably so.
Sally in St Paul
The longer days are welcome after the really short winter ones – right now, our sunrise/sunset is 5:25 am/9:00pm. I even forgive the birds who start singing outside my open bedroom window before 4:00am.
Outdoor dining (“dining” – that sounds so fancy, haha) is a favorite of mine too! When we first moved to Minnesota, we were the weird people eating at the outdoor tables in the chilly fall weather because I am just such a fan of it. Some counter-service places in particular just kind of left the tables out until the first snow arrived, without any expectations of use, but I’d sit there in a coat and eat lunch!
bettyewp
WOW, light out til 9pm! I’m jealous!!!
But I bet I’ve got you beat with the morning birds. My building is right next to the lake on campus…and there are these crazy birds that live in the trees right in front of the building along the lake…oh gosh, I forget the name…they’re BIG. Not a heron or egret…but picture a really ugly, awkward looking heron, all black, does it start with a P? Anyway the WORST sounds come out of these creatures! And they wake up with the sun, so…it’s an interesting alarm clock 🙂
And yeah, all my friends knew…if there were tables outside an establishment, no matter how cold it was, I’d be like, uhhhmmmmm, can we sit outside?? ha ha.
Leslie Clingan
You painted such a pretty picture of summer’s best characteristics with your photos and words. Glad to know there is someone else who likes the extra hours of daylight during this season. Me, too!! I don’t know why folks are wanting to go with a standard time and do away with DST.
I enjoy sitting outside, too. Even in our heat. Probably because I am always cold!! But even in the winter I enjoy being on a patio where there are heaters available.
Beach days are the best. When we are on vacation at the beach, I wake up and run to the closest window – almost as if I am afraid the beach and ocean will have disappeared overnight. Did that on my cruise and my recent trip to Colorado, too. Now that I think about it, I do that at home – and there is certainly no beach outside my window here – I guess I just like to greet the day (and make sure the beach is still there, where applicable).
bettyewp
Oh I love a window with a view! I just love looking out. Whether it’s at home or from a car or train or bus. It’s just something about being inside and anonymous while you’re watching what’s going on outside.