Summer Time!

The journaling prompt this week at Miriam's AnceStories2 is Summer which is my favorite season. Hopefully I'll find time to expand on some of these prompts.

*How do you feel about summer? Is is a favorite season, or do you prefer another?

Summer is definitely my favorite season! Four months of being able to be outside in the garden. Spring, aka May, is ok, it promises that summer is coming. Fall, aka October, is sad, signaling summer’s end. Winter is 6 months of misery.

*What are your favorite summer activities? Do you enjoy being outside, or would you rather curl up with your air conditioner?

I love to be in the garden, full of beauty, birds and bugs. I like playing outside with the kids. I am often found outside under the shade of a tree or in the screen room with a book or my lap top. In the evening I like to curl up on the glider and watch the dance of a small fire.

*Do you have a favorite summertime sport to participate in or watch?

Tanning and people watching! I don’t enjoy watching organized sports much. Baseball and tennis are incredibly boring to watch. I like to play kickball, volleyball and badminton but with my current health problems I don’t participate as much as I’d like.

*What is your typical summer outfit?

Shorts, tank top and clogs.

*Do you take a summer vacation? Where do you normally go, and what kinds of activities do you do there?

I get 4-9 weeks of vacation every summer. We often go away for a week or two in the summer but not always; we have no plans to travel this year. Rather than return to the same spot over and over we would rather go someplace we’ve never been before.

*What is your favorite summer holiday, and why?

The 4th of July is my favorite because we have an annual barbecue and most of my family is then altogether in one place.

*What kinds of summer foods or drinks do you enjoy?

We do a lot of grilling and have lots of different salads in the summer and I like to sample various Finger Lakes wines.

*Share some favorite memories of summer vacation from when you were a child.

Camping was the highlight of our summer. We had a tent camper and went to the Adirondacks or Vermont every summer.

*What is your least favorite thing about summer?

Deer flies and mosquitoes.

*Do you enjoy summer storms?

I love summer storms, especially watching them build and push across Lake Ontario. One year when we had a camp at Sylvan Beach, on Oneida Lake, I gathered everybody out on the glass enclosed porch to watch a storm. I small tornado went through just a block from us and that was the last of our storm watching there.

*What is the hottest summer temperature you remember experiencing?

121° on a trip to Laughlin, NV. I don't remember it ever hitting 100° here in CNY.

*Do you have a memory of a cool or cold summer? Has it snowed on the Fourth of July in your area?

We have had a few summers where we never it never reached 90°. I tend not to focus on unpleasant memories. We have never had snow in July or August that I can remember. May and September occasionally see snow.

*What family birthdays, anniversaries, or events are commemorated in the summer? Are there any significant family history events that occurred during summer?

There are too many summer family events to list here. When the nieces and nephews were younger and still living nearby there would be one huge birthday party in August because there were simply too many to celebrate individually.

My great-grandfather, Ashley Carlisle, had an annual picnic for veterans of the Civil War. It was held in honor of his birthday which was the 5th of July but I have seen newspaper articles that say the picnic (and his birthday) were on the 4th.

*What summertime hobbies do you pursue? If you are a genealogist, do you travel to ancestral locations during this season?

My hobbies have changed over the years. Currently I garden. When my kids were young summer time revolved around them. I have made very few trips for research and none in the summer. Genealogy is my winter hobby and does not get as much attention when I can be outdoors.