Summer days . . .

Believe it or not, the schools here in Chester have just now broken up for the summer hols, with the children having a break now until September.  In Scotland they have been broken up for a bit longer and will be going back in August.  I am not sure why the difference in the dates, but I am sure that there is a method behind the madness!  I am sure that the motorways would have been mayhem yesterday and will be today, as families head off for seaside holidays and the like!  More power to them!  I am not a person who is fond of mayhem, crowds or holiday traffic!

Holidays were not something we ever took when I was growing up, or at least not very often. I can remember other families in the neighborhood taking them, but we Villeneuves did not.  Our next door neighbors in Gimli, Manitoba had a station wagon whose rear windows were covered with decals from all of the exotic places they had travelled to and seen. It read like the who's who of family holidays. I spent many an hour reading them all and wondering about the places that they had been.

Families to the back of us went camping. They would pop up their tents to air them out before they left. I imagine some of them went en masse. My mother was not the outdoorsy type. She still isn't.  She hates bugs, and any type of contact with them. Our summer holidays for the most part were spent at home, where we belonged.  

 

I used to dread the annual "What I did on my Summer Holidays" essay when school returned in the autumn, because it always seemed that I had nothing exciting to write about!  Which wasn't entirely true when looking back at it with an adult perspective!

I went on loads of little holidays during those summer months. I was a daily visitor to the Library and read tons of books.  My summers were spent adventuring with Enid Blyton's Famous Five, Trixie Beldon, The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew and many others.  I even went on some of my favourite adventures twice!

   

 

Summer was the time for playing school with my sister. I was always the teacher of course, and she the student.  I'm  not sure how she felt about that, but age has it's priviledges.   I can remember also stringing a skipping rope across the front porch, hanging a blanket over it and playing house.  Again, I was the mother and everyone danced to my tune.

There was lots and lots of bike riding.  I rode my bicycle everywhere.  Sometimes my mother would give in and make me a picnic lunch to take with me. A peanut butter sandwich and maybe an apple.  Calling something a picnic automatically increases the taste value of anything.  I spent many picnics tucked up in the branches of old trees whilst surveying the domain around me, daydreaming about foreign lands and peoples, and ancient times.   

Lots of my days were spent delving into the nature that surrounded where we lived.  Discovering and studying the flora and natural wildlife that was there.  Catching frogs.  Picking wild flowers and wild berries.  Chasing butterflies. 

 

 

 

Really hot days . . .  the dog days . . .  brought with them the joys of being allowed to put on our swim suits and run through the sprinkler. That was always so much fun.  The water was always so cooling and we always felt a little bit like we were living on the edge.  Sprinkler fun was the Saint Tropez of my childhood.  I can remember once when it was raining my mother let us don our swimsuits and play out in the rain.  I suspect that we must have been driving her crazy indoors, so much so that it was worth the angst of wet towels and swimsuits to deal with afterwards. 

 

Most rainy days however, were spend indoors, colouring, reading, day dreaming . . .  wishing and moping about . . . playing with my Barbie  or my paper dolls. One of my favourite things was drawing and colouring new clothes for my paper dolls. I would get the Sears catalogue out  and copy outfits from there.   

 

 

 

 

The summer school holidays also brought with them swimming lessons.  My mother had never learned how to swim, so it was really important to her that we children did know how to swim. I always enjoyed swimming lessons . . . sometimes these lessons were done at the outdoor pools and had to be taken early in the morning before open swimming hours.  I can remember needing to be there by 8 or 9 a.m. The water was always freezing cold. (No such thing as a heated pool in those days!)  You soon got used to it however. The reward was always a new badge to sew onto your swimsuit at the end of it all. 

 

I can remember our parents taking us to the beach once.  Again,  my mother was not fond of being out of doors in the sunshine, or bugs. I remember the fishy smell of the water which seemed quite foreign as I was used to swimming in chlorinated water. My favourite part was the ice cream cone afterwards.  Rainbow ice cream which had every colour of the rainbow in it.  We had to eat it quickly because we were not allowed to eat it in the car.  Not a problem for a child. We gobbled them up. 

 

 

 

Occasionally my father would give my mother the night off and he would BBQ.  I strongly suspect that these occasions were really rather more work for my mother in the long run, which is why they were only occasional, but we enjoyed them immensely!  Nothing tastes better than a burger or a hot dog, blackened on the edges and tasting of smoke and charcoal.  When we got older my father built  a wooden picnic table and we even got to eat outdoors, which was fun.  

 

He must have gone through a carpentry phase actually because one year he even made us wooden stilts. We had a LOT of fun with those stilts!! 

 

Because my father was in the Canadian Airforce and we lived on airforce bases for most of my childhood, there were always great Sunday School picnics to start the summer off with, Airforce days with air shows and free food and demonstrations, and back in the olden days there was also a Station picnic with races and games and again free food and drinks.  Those were always fabulous occasions. 

 

There were bicycle parades and Girl Guide/Brownie jamborees, catching fireflies and running away from fishflies, flying ants . . .  and really . . .  when I think about it . . . . summers were never boring at all, despite never having bonafide holidays to exotic locations! 

 

It really was the best of times! 

Ariana stopped by last night with her mum.  Still no baby.  She is two weeks gone past her due date and getting more than a little frustrated with the wait. Her mum is due to go home in another week. She is at that point in her pregnancy where all she wants is to have it over with.  I really do hope that baby arrives while her mother is here. One thing about babies however is, they come when they are ready to come!  She was saying if it didn't come soon they were going to induce her.  I really hope that she doesn't have to go through that.  I hear its no fun!

And with that I will leave you with a thought for the day  . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
 *You don't inspire your teammates

by showing them how amazing you are,

you inspire them by showing them

how amazing they are!

~Robyn Benincasa  •。★★ 。* 。  

In the English Kitchen today  . . .  Cream Tea Trifle Pots.  YUM!

Have a great Saturday, looks like the sun is shining here so we will spend the day clearing out the shed!  No matter what you get up to, don't forget!

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And I do too!