Welcome back to another Open Book Blog Hop!

What are your favourite summer plans?

Remember to visit my fellow writers to see what they have created. You can find their works here!

I’ll be quite honest here – I used to hate summer. I don’t do heat. Autumn and winter were my seasons. Cool, crisp air, the turning of the leaves, the chance for snow, Halloween and my favourite – Christmas.

Until I got air conditioning in my house. Now, let me give a little context here. I live in the UK, where, historically, summers were cooler and winters were still colder. I remember snow as a kid. So our homes were built to hold the heat and reduce the gas bills. Shift to recent years, and it’s now not uncommon to see summers hit mid to high 30s (Celsius – so high 80s to mid 90s Fahrenheit for my cousins over the pond). Now, add to this that the construction is quite different. A lot (though not all) US homes seem to be timber-framed and drywall/plasterboard with an exterior skin. In the UK most of our homes are built from breeze blocks (cinder blocks in the US) with a layer of insulation, an air cavity then brickwork exterior. All of this is down for warmth. So my AC is a blessing!

I also have a south-facing garden which gets a lot of sun, so it is too hot often in mid-summer. Recently, we’ve had a deck with a pergola built, providing loads of shade, so I’m loving sitting outside. I’ll be out there a lot this summer with my wife. It’s perfect for writing, working, eating, relaxing – the whole nine yards.

That aside, we enjoy day trips to the beach, stately homes, or just getting out into town for a coffee. I’m also off to Wales for a holiday later this month, so there’s plenty to be looking forward to.