Late Spring / Early Summer

Happy happy summer! I’ve been celebrating the arrival of this ever joyous season with cafe days, double scoops of ice cream, trip planning and rediscovering the joy of reading outdoors in the warm, sun-filled evenings (above) when we are lucky enough to have them! It comes in such a short window every year that I sort of forget about it until it happens. There’s been a literal stack of books I’ve been trying to get through as a part of two book club (“reading circles”) I’ve been participating in… reminding me how nice it would just be to pluck a book from the shelf and read what I felt like. Some light summer reading is necessary and I hope that will be more in the cards for July.

The past month has been a fun one – feeling like a recovery from spring which was entirely taken over by quarantine and lockdown. At the end of May, I decided it would be an excellent idea to learn how to skateboard. In the month I’ve been “on the board”, my attitude has gone from: ‘wow, i’m totally better than the average beginner’ to my tragic-yet-inevitable first fall in the beginning of June “ow ow ow it hurts, but not as much as it hurts my pride”, and now I’m still in the “confidence recovery” phase… and remembering that beginners shouldn’t be attempting to try to skate in a dress or skirt, which pretty much messes with my whole summer thing, so… I’d give my current confidence a 4/10. Give me safe and refreshing water sports any day. These hard, concrete sports in this landlocked, cobblestoned country are unforgiving… but I shall not give up.

and side note – having a million hobbies is exhausting!

Late May and June vibes: sunny outdoor times, feeling okay about getting rained on for two weeks straight times, first parties and post-lockdown nights out at the pub. Bonfires, linen dresses, cups of milky coffee. My garden getting positively demolished by slugs. Watching so many wonderful films in early June as a part of the first ever We Are One Global Film Festival (did anyone else catch any?). The first fresh-feeling swim of the summer. Lounge chair naps.

Finally, we got around to going to Český Krumlov before the foreign tour group hoards made their way back that way. I wanted to go there in early May like we always do before anyone was there, but finally decided it would make for an excellent first overnight trip, perfectly coinciding with our fifth wedding anniversary in mid-June which fell on the same day of the week on which we were married, for the first time. Even though it didn’t feel exotic to have a holiday in a town we’ve spent so much time, it was still a wonderful and luxurious weekend – I felt like a stopped for a cappuccino every few hours, which feels about right for this sort of trip. Cappuccino equals European holiday, in my opinion.

So, what’s to come this summer?
As I write this, I have only one more lesson to teach of this school year (!!!), then I’m going to be doing some high-level relaxing and enjoying the soft transition into July, and hopefully a lazy day or two. Then some cottage and camping trips are on the calendar until our usual stint teaching childrens’ summer camps.

As for August, we are very much hoping to travel abroad and, as a leap of good faith, I have actually purchased plane tickets to a place that we, even in the relatively safe haven of the Czech Republic are currently not allowed to even travel to. If it all actually works out, I’ll tell you the story of how that happened, but we won’t even know if we can travel until probably mid-July at the absolute earliest. 2020 is such a nuts year. Keeping my fingers crossed that the epidemiological situation is in a good condition and that we can enjoy our summers safely.

What are you looking forward to this summer? Wishing you happy and sunny (but not sweaty) times ahead.

ps, other Krumlov in late spring posts can be found here and here.