How do you intend to make YOUR summer special?

[Summercocktailsinthesnow]

Feeling really sad that overseas holidays are now almost certainly off the cards, and we will be lucky if we even make it out of lockdown entirely now.

Can I ask how you are going to make your summer special? How you are going to enjoy it? What are your plans to make the most of it? We need cheering up!

I started a thread about feeling so flat still earlier in the week, and so many of us feel the same, so now maybe we can reflect on what there is to look forward to, because I am struggling a little with the fact things feel very very far from 'normal'

Days out (on my own!) at the Lido .

I’ll be treating my 3yo to a lot of ice cream at the park I think, and hanging out in the garden tending the tomatoes. Little pleasures.

Excellent thread idea! Haven't given it much thought so far. Hoping for dinners in the garden at some point - bloody freezing right now! Will try to cook / make a new recipe every week. Book a UK break for early September (no kids).

We are hoping for a week away in the UK in August, if it is possible/feels safe to do so. I will enjoy that -and will not spend my time thinking "we were supposed to be in X" (it's my 50th this year and had a very special holiday planned).

Other than that we will take our unused holiday money and do various projects on the house.

And day trips with the teens (if they'll deign to spend time with us) and also with the inlaws who have been housebound for the last year.

And dream of better times to come.

BBQs and picnics in the garden
Planting and growing the garden
Days out (while places are open) eg mountain biking, water splash parks, go ape etc
Meals out with friends/colleagues while pubs and restaurants can open
Holiday to Scotland (can’t wait for a change of scenery)
Enjoying our new extension
Outdoor swimming pool/aqua park
Meeting up outdoors with family and friends
BBQs and fires in our friends gardens
There’s so much to look forward to!

I am hoping we have a very warm summer so I can sit on my lounger, looking at my garden (which we have spent quite a bit of time tidying up and replanting)

& obviously I would have a chilled glass of rosé in hand and a stocked kindle !

Even if it pours with rain I intend to still have a glass of rosé, read my kindle perhaps watch a little bit on Netflix or Amazon especially the tennis

I live near Loch Lomond, lots of lovely walk and trails.

I’m not helpful - I’m dreading the summer holidays. All the enthusiasm and energy I used to have has been squashed flat this last year. I used to have a Pinterest bucket list of summer holiday ideas. I’m just so, so tired of making the best of things.

Taking hard drugs, shagging and shipping the kids off to their aunt's in Outer Mongolia

Well not quite buckets and spades at the beach, but spades for digging out the garden to build a conservatory. It’s a nice project for the summer and means that I’ll have a nice big dining room to have all the extended family sat in at Christmas this year.

I'm hoping to move house. Though It's not something that I'll be doing too often.

Although I didn’t know Outer Mongolia was on the fly list so that’s an option 😁

Sixthtime, want me to check on your kids while I’m there and send your regards?

Leaving the country and not coming back for a while.

Why do you think overseas holidays are off the cards? They were available all last year.

Things have moved on a lot from last year, and we have learnt a great deal, I don't think the gov are going to compromise all our progress just for a variant to come along and ruin it all, taking our economy with it. Travel will be hellish even if it is allowed, so bad that no one will want to do it is my guess. So not an all out ban, but so much uncertainty, queues and changing green to red lists, that most will give up and forget it.

So now I am trying to figure out how we make this summer still lovely, because this might be as good as it gets for a while.

We've built a bar and we have a hot tub one side of it. It's fully enclosed

I'm hoping to go to Ireland and see my family and friends, but also lots of day trips in the UK.

If we get a nice summer I want to book some Saturday nights in hotels near the coast (nothing fancy, DS favours a Holiday Inn Express). That way we get a couple of days of seaside/amusements/coastal walks.

We'll also go to Drayton Manor, and visit friends who live on the Gower.

It mostly has to be weekends due to work, but luckily I've found a very good summer camp with a swimming pool, go carts etc.

Sorry posted to soon.

It's fully enclosed so even if it's crap weather we can sit in it.

And I got a George foreman bbq so we will be in the hot tub eating bbq as if we are in holiday.

Taking hard drugs, shagging and shipping the kids off to their aunt's in Outer Mongolia

Actually I've changed my mind, this sounds better.

Loving your ideas everyone!!!! I now want a bar - thinking to ask dh if we can make one collectively too.

Love the idea of lots of camping, wild fires and swimming.

We've invested some flight delay compo we received in a load of camping gear incl a tent with proper living room bit that massive DH can stand up in. We plan lots of spontaneous camping wherever we can find a pitch. We live on the outskirts of the Peak District and can be in the lakes/North Yorkshire /North Wales in 2-3 hours do lots of options.

I don’t live in the UK, but in a different European country, part of the EU and whose borders have stayed open throughout, so I’m looking forward to travelling in summer although it won’t be as much as I used to.

For the time I will spend at home, I plan on lots and lots of meals out with friends, be it at pubs/restaurants, or picnics in the park. We’ve had a horrible winter, much colder and longer than usual (scarf and winter coat weather today... 🙄), so I just can’t wait to be outside all day long. I want to discover some new parks in the city that out of laziness (and because it was cold) I didn’t visit in winter, and I also want to go to the botanical gardens, zoo and places like that over the summer. Hoping for a few outdoor concerts or similar events too! Ice cream and cold beer whilst listening to live music on a summery evening, can’t wait.

Although if I’m being completely honest, I’ll be crushed if I go back in August having achieved those things, without managing to get to the UK to see my best friend and my family there. I can’t take another year of that... Our rates are going down and 40% of the population is vaccinated, so I’m still hoping for a last minute trip.

Still hoping for abroad, booked for September, but boots three weekends in the interim

Hopefully with a new job and weekends spent out on day trips (not to the beach!).

I've had a small open-sided shelter built in the garden so outdoor coffees etc won't be weather dependent (and the kids can have outdoor play with friends, but frankly that's secondary to my coffee socialisation needs ).

I've just joined an eye-wateringly expensive gym for 3 months, which will give us all access to indoor and outdoor pool, and adult and kids' exercise classes. I've basically spent the "holiday fund" on that, so that it will give us a change of scene - particularly as our local council pools are still shut.

As long as we can all see a small number of friends and hang out together in the garden at least, I feel I will be OK (this is possibly because we had a year of shielding so anything feels fantastic after that!)

Am now contemplating whether I could persuade friendly local massage therapist to come and do her magic stuff in the garden too...

Treating myself to regular massages and reflexology.

Staying with friends and family who very conveniently live along various coastlines!

Seeing friends as often as possible, drinking wine in the sunshine and getting my social bar topped up again.

I live for summer, will be outside as much as possible!