20 things I (really!) want to do this spring and summer!

The birds are chirping up their orchestral tunes, the daffodils are out in full force, and I have officially worn open toed shoes for the first time this year! We're a month into spring already and suddenly, exquisitely, majestically, and so very beautifully, there is an almost hyper-abundance of things to do and see and savour again for the first time in many, many months.

If our plans aren't already set in motion beforehand, as the weekend draws nears, Tony or I will usually ask the other person what we might want to do on Saturday and Sunday. The answers can range from yard saling to fishing, thifting to the farmer's market, just depending on which one of is doing the replying. Fortunately we're both great at splitting our free time amongst each other's passions, while also sharing in many of the same ones (say for example, attending auctions or sitting on the beach in our camping chairs and watching the onion skin hued sun be swallowed up for the evening by the sagebrush covered Okanagan hillside) and that ensures that our weekend are usually a blast.

This time around when Tony posed the question to me on Friday, my mind didn't just stop at the coming two days, instead it shot off into a rapid fire Hollywood movie worthy montage of many of the fabulous things that I want to do, not just right here and now, but throughout the coming weeks and months that will fill the sublimely warm seasons of spring and summer.

This flip book of activities that these two can house is as good as endless, especially if you happen to live near water or other highly inviting landscape features. It can have a thousand pages, or just a few that you revisit time and time again, taking to heart like the lyrics of your favourite summer songs. The following are twenty that are topping my list this year and that I sincerely hope are able to come to fruition!

20 awesome things I really

want to do this spring and summer 

1. Test drive all of the great vintage, repro and vintage appropriate warm weather clothing I picked up over the course of the fall and winter and feature oodles of it here in future outfit posts.

2. Watch the stars shine like a hundred billion sparkling fireflies from atop Apex Mountain on a hypnotically warm night.

3. Get so lost in the enchantingly loveliness of the season that I forget not only what time it is, but what day of the week it is, too!

4. Barbeque a lot. I mean risk wearing out the grill levels of barbequing.

5. Watch the twinkling, gorgeous Canada Day fireworks that are shot off over Okanagan Lake down at the beach.

6. Try to spend at least a few minutes, but ideally an hour or more, outside every single day.

7. Think of my Halloween costume well in advance October and then start making and/or buying the necessary elements.

8. Go fishing with my honey. He fishes, I lounge on the dock and converse with him, and delight in each and ever dragonfly that lands for the quickest of pulses, on my bare, suntanned skin.

9. Get said suntan without burning to a crisp first. Easier said than done when you scorch faster than a piece of toast, even after being slathered with industrial grade SPF!

10. Fly a kite! I was probably 12 or 13 the last time I did so.

11. Have a bonfire, complete with marshmallows (and thus naturally, s'mores) at the beach (own town allows you do so in some areas).

12. Visit the traveling carnival (midway/fair) when it's in town (it's almost a running joke how often, despite madly wanting to do so, I end up missing it, usually due to my health).

13. Go on at least one road trip, even if it's just a weekend long getaway. My immense sense of wanderlust is usually strongest during these sublimely lovely months of the year, thanks in no small part, I'm sure to the fact it was when my parent took us on holidays around the province when I was a youngster.

14. Picnic like it's going out of style!

15. Buy some coloured chalk and let my inner five year sidewalk artist run free.

16. Come the early days of August, watch the Peach Festival Parade on Main Street (I haven't been in over half my lifetime!).

17. Put the frozen yogurt maker we bought at the end of last summer though its paces!

18. Take a houseboat cruise ride on Okanagan Lake for the first time (how I've gone 30 years without doing so before is beyond me!).

19. Attend our town's toe-tappingly fun annual square dance festival.

20. Camp!!! (After all, it is an in-tents experience! :D)

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I know that there's a very real chance I won't get to everything on my list, modest sized though it may be, this spring and summer, but even just having these desires down on virtual paper makes the possibility of them turning into something tangible seem all the more likely.

Chances are, for every one that does happen, ten marvelous unplanned or very last minute activities, invitations, feasts, and trips (even if that word is simply used to describe a five minute drive somewhere) will occur and come the last days of summer, when summer gets ready to hand the torch over to autumn, I'll look back on these months and smile ear-to-ear.

Spring and summer never disappoint (see 2012's post 25 reasons to love summer for some of my personal favourite reasons why that rings true for me). Even when the going gets tough in my daily life, something about sunlight until nearly 10 pm, the ability to walk barefoot in warm-as-oatmeal sand, the wearing of sundresses and strappy sandals, the consuming of light, fresh fair for nearly every meal, and the treasure trove of memories that this time of the year houses all ensure that it's worth jumping out of bed in a happy-go-lucky mood, no matter what you might have planned - or not – for the day.

So tell me, my dears, what's calling your name this spring and summer? Will you be mapping your every move, taking it nice and easy, or - as I tend to do - balancing the two to create a generous stretch of months so lovely they make every last icicle, snow bank, and extra woolen layer of winter worth it a thousand times over.

Here's to the prospect of all that this half of the year holds in store for each of us - may it be a spring and summer to delight in and cherish the memory of forever!