"They are not long, the days of wine and roses ..." Ernest Dowson, Vitae Summa Brevis
Summer is here. Spring is over and now the long hot days of summer commence. I will miss the soft dewey blossoms of Spring and the fresh, bright green grass. I think May really is one of my favourite months with the burst of new life it brings and the rich array of swathes of flowers soaking our days with colour and fragrance. I look forward to my first sighting of the swallows. I delight in the noisy dawn chorus and chatter of new life. I love watching the Egyptian geese herding their flock of 9 little goslings. Spring is incredible.
But May has passed and June is nearly over. We have turned the corner and the grass is drying out, the countryside is turning yellow and we are entering the depths of summer.
Summer means lots of things, but one I really love is days at the beach. Dusting off the deckchairs. It means a change in clothing from jeans to shorts, long sleeved shirts to T shirts. Summer dresses. The toenails come out and need to be painted. My feet are adorned in sandals and flipflop's and espadrilles. There will be ice-cream & wild swimming in rivers and lakes and the ocean.
I love old black & white photos. I was going through some family photo albums and I found these pictures of my grandparents on my mothers side enjoying their summer holidays.
Here is Nanna Fenn in her summer best down by the sea. The first thing that struck me was how elegantly my grandmother was dressed for a day at the beach. I realised that this was probably a big day out from life in London and required a nice outfit. I was also pondering where in England there is a swing like this on the pebbled beach?
This is my grandfather. He drove ambulances in World War 2. He left school in his early teens because his father died and he had to earn money to look after the family.
I love the way my grandma is showing off her legs in this photo. She has such a clean pretty dress on and big pearl earrings. I can't imagine wearing anything so beautiful to the beach.
These photos led me on a rabbit trail which was fed by the blog site of Miss Moss. I found these similar seaside themed photos of Salvador Dali and his partner Gala. Again, here is a woman elegantly dressed somewhere by the sea in the summer. ( Click on Photos for link to Miss Moss blog)
But of course these 2 were bohemian artists, hence the images have an arty edge to them.
'Summer is the time when one sheds ones tensions and the right kind of day is jewelled balm for a battered spirit. ' Ada Louise Huntable
Look at that crazy floral wreath Dali is wearing. I love Gala's glasses.
Shorts, good legs and ankle strap sandals.
Leaving behind the summer theme, Dali and Gala. I think Dali is wearing a pair of espadrilles with ankle straps in the lower photo!
Next stop, Marilyn Munroe in summer gear in the wild. I love the shorts and the wedge sandals.
That reminded me of a photo I have of my mother on a Girl Guide and Scout Jamboree, wearing a pair of shorts and cutting up firewood.
Then I found this photo of Tove Jansson, author of 'The Moomins' on her little island in the middle of nowhere in Finland. I've got two of her books on my bookshelf, short essays written around her life in Finland I recommend them both: The Winter Book & The Summer Book
The Morning Swim - Taken from The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
'It was an early, very warm morning in July, and it had rained during the night. The bare granite steamed, the moss and crevices were drenched with moisture, and all the colours everywhere had deepened.'
Next stop, photos of Frida Khalo in Mexico taken by Giselle. Big gypsy style dresses and huge earrings.
And finally a few photos on the theme of PLAYTIME curated by the Dutch National Archives.
"Summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words
in the English language."
Henry James