“Summer afternoon – summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” –Henry James
 
It’s hard to believe August is right around the corner. Summer is flying by, especially for those of us in Vancouver who waited patiently through a cold, rainy June for a hit of that ever-elusive sun. The upside to living through nine months of rain is that you become extraordinarily grateful for every slight sunburn, every pink-orange sunset, every too hot day that comes your way. Vancouverites linger outside until the sun finally dips behind the mountains sometime after nine pm. It’s tough to drag us indoors–we want to throw one more ball, take one last sip, stroll just that little bit further before we call it a night. We know that the seawall will be barren of rollerbladers and frisbee throwers come October, so we bask and sweat and smile that summer smile at one another while we can.
 
It’s a familiar story, even for those who reside in a less rainy locale: every year, we climb out of our cocoons and give ourselves permission for a few brief, hot months to have fun. Bike crawling, outdoor concert going, horse racing, wine tasting, beach lazing, book reading, Shakespeare watching, train riding, picnic in the park-ing, mai tai mixing, at-the-top-of-your-lungs-too-loud-singing: this is what the sweet, invincible summer looks like to me.

 
And you? How is your summer going? Give me the highlights, the sights, the smells. What one thing are you most looking forward to?

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