What does summer mean to you?

I am looking for and still looking for the return of my hummingbirds this summer. they are very late. summer means i can go barefoot, while walking in the grass. just a country boy at heart.

umm…summer means playing lots of golf! But lately, it is too hot to leave the house! Heat index here has been between 100 and 115! and it’s not summer yet!

Mosquitoes!!!! That’s the part I hate. Taking my grandchildren to the water park, grilling outside or just relaxing on my deck with a good book and a tall glass of lemonade.

Hot, sticky weather! I love humidity.

Watching the crops grow, harvesting vegetables, building things and wishing my lady were here to share it all with me.

For me summer, mostly means spending time with my family as we don’t spend that much time together (but we do spend some time together, though not that much!) Either mom is working the day me and dad are free or the other way round. Summer we travel alot for like summer house’s trips and stuff like that. Summer I rest a lot from school books but on the road trips I always read or something. Summer vacation also means I always work up like 9.am or something, first thing I do is watch tv until the end of the day.

Lazy days in the garden, barbecues. Taking my dogs for long walks on the moors.
Sitting out each evening waiting for the bats to arrive just as it is going dark. They are such a lovely sight.

It changes depending where I live, and definitely has changed over time. When I was little it meant I did not have to wake up early and go to school. Sleeping late was very important to me. As an adult I first lived in Florida and summer was the more uncomfortable part of the year. Now, living in a more northern climate again, I am desperate every year for the sumemr, the hot weather, the sun, and the humidity; I love it.

@BoBo1946 Wow it certainly is warm where you are. It is 65F here today. Not warm enough for me yet

Campfires, swims in the river, sleeping in (I teach, so, I’m off during the summer :)), travelling, BBQs, lounging on my patio with a good book and a cold adult beverage.

Ice cream trucks.

I know it’s summer time when my dog lies on the ground in the sun in order to feel the warmth. It’s adorable.
Summer time means relaxing, swimming, barbeques, water tubing, boating, tanning, eating ice cream, drinking margaritas and vacationing/visiting with family and friends. :)

@Vunessuh Loved your answer, my dog does that too. She loves sitting outside when its outstandingly hot (I don’t understand why!). And the margaritas sound good, I need to put that on my “to do” list. ;P

Normally summer means BBQs, being outside, going to the pool with my son, and having people over more often. This summer, it means we are halfway through this deployment as well as all those other things.

Kids off school, rain, rain, rain, oh & more rain. Still lots of indoor fun & games so what the hell.Not going to let a little thing like a shit climate spoil the summer.

Hot miserable weather. Unable to go outside. Higher electric bills from AC.

@HungryGuy Really? Where do you live. My winter bills to heat are much much higher then my summer bills.

Lake lake lake. And sitting in the shade on the deck, in the late evening golden sun, after a 100+ day.

I hate Summer. Heat waves, nose bleeds caused by dryness, or humidity that makes me ill. Can’t sleep, always feel sick, blaah. People everywhere, that also depresses me. I like Autumn and Winter better because most people don’t enjoy that weather, and don’t feel the need to try to make me a part of their lives, since it’s all cold and wet and they wanna get home. I just can’t stand being woken by the sound of faraway lawnmowers, to me that’s more depressing than a thousand forsaken voices screeching in unison straight from the bowels of Hell, since it represents a barrier to my antisocial ways.
But I like Summer nights though. If I have to go back some years, it meant being dirt poor in a rooming house with fuckall to do except Final Fantasy IV, Psycho on cable TV and Stephen King for company…but somehow it was nice, spending the hot Summer nights just lounging around, jonesing for a fucking smoke or going for treks at 7–11 at three in the morn for hot dogs and coffee.

But I just don’t like it much because I wasn’t made for this damn weather haha, and I seem to have had many bad things happen to me in past Summers, or perhaps my mindframe changes with the weather and everything seems bad…but eh, it doesn’t mean much to me except wanting it to snow.

@Symbeline – Come stay with me! I keep my AC at 60F 24/7 (and pay for it dearly, too)...

@Symbeline Where do you live? Its 97F here and cloudy right now ;P

I’m in Québec, it’s like +32 right now and so damn humid that you could drink water straight from the air just by sucking on a straw. And it’s messing up my damn hair.

The most annoying season in the year I can’t breathe well and I must stay in the house searching for a decent book or movie or anything that will keep me busy until the autumn arrives

I love summer!

It means insects—crawling, biting, stinging bugs; having to plan a stupid grocery outing early in the morning; hot steering wheels and seats; sunscreen; bored pets having to stay inside; a/c running most of the time; growing tomatoes and strawberries; incessant lawnmowing; wishing it would end soon.

Heat rash

Poor sleep

Exhorbitant utility bills

Higher gas prices

Squirrelly drivers

Food poisoning

Mosquitos

Sticky gross sunscreen skin

Bad hair

Bugs, bugs, and more bugs. I am not bug friendly!! Therefore summer is not one of my favorite seasons.

I usually look at summer as being reinvention and rejuvination time. Less obligations and more time to spend on myself.

@Symbeline I know what you mean. First too wet, now too hot. Fortunately my underground house stays about 20 degrees cooler without A/C. If the heat (or the black flies) gets too bad, I’ll jump in the pond. I don’t have enough hair left for the humidity to mess up, but cleaning the sweat off my eyeglasses every 15 minutes is a bummer. After a hot shower, I’m now lying under the ceiling fan drinking a cold Labatts.

For a stay at home worker like myself, every day is just like every other day. Summer means a few more doors and windows open, or maybe turn on the air conditioner instead of the heater.

It might mean that my son and his family will come over to play in the pool more often, but with the pool heater broken, they don’t really like the cold water.

@YARNLADY My spring-fed pond is like jumping into a deep-freeze, not bad on days like this though.

@Neizvestnaya So you don’t enjoy summer then? Too hot for you?

@partyparty
Summer where I live currently reaches into the hundred teens and is dry, it feels like punishment for past lives or something.

@Neizvestnaya Oh yes I can understand why you wrote the answer now!! Don’t think we ever get temperatures like that in the UK… at least not that I can ever remember.

Summers meaning changes over the years, but the feeling of summer does not.

Now, at 50, my greatest joy is summer nights out on my deck with a fire going in the Kiva fireplace and in the hot tub….(cold tub) , with my cool solar torches and, of course, a few Coronas or Blue Moons while stargazing.

I live on a very private 5 acres of woodlands and summer also means hundreds of tree frogs hanging around and lots of wildlife coming by to drink in my yard and the deer lounge under the deck on hot days.

I am lucky to be able to leave all the doors and windows open all night and enjoy the crickets and other night sounds.

Summer now, means long, lazy nights in nature….love it!

@Coloma sounds like heaven. I can’t leave our windows open; I’d have a heat stroke. No deer here , either. Left the deer and hot tub back in Arkansas. (pouts)

Dusk till 10:45 pm.

@mattbrowne

Wow! You must be waaaay far north…dusk til about 9:30 here right now.

@JLeslie – As a computer consultant, I move around a lot. I’m currently living in the States (just north of NYC). But my answer would be the same whether I’m living here, or the left coast, or in the UK… I hate the hot weather, and I’m miserable in the summer!

@HungryGuy I see. You probably keep your air conditioner very cold compared to me.

@JLeslie – Yes.

Frankfurt shares the same latitude as Calgary.

It means extreme sweat and horrible hurricane weather.
I hate it!
I live in TB Florida.

Summer means outdoor tanning and lemonade today. And hopefully not many bees.

In the middle of a heat wave over this way , soooo….7:01 a.m. and I have been out watering since 6 a.m.

Getting the yard, plants and animals set up to get through another 100+ degree day.

Have my ‘hot’ tub, filled with cold water and the swimming pools overflowing for the geese.

Whew!

@Coloma Fluther is invited for cold-tubbing, yes? ;P
I live in Arkansas, and I can totally agree. This heat is insane. Especially with humidity

@meagan

Yes! :-)

Low humidity out west but…the nights are staying extremely warm, it’s that summer thing…not ready for bed til after midnight or later, then have to be up at dawn for the maintainance chores….I am wiped out after 3 nights of about 5–6 hours sleep and a busy weekend of work.

Hot & sleepless in northern California! lol

Hmm…summers don’t have an special meaning to me in terms of memories or rituals or anything really. It just means that it’s warm enough that i can swim in our pool and that it’s rainy season, which i loooooooooove! :D

Oh, I was just thinking of this question again, and it popped up in my activity for you. I wanted to add to my answer that it also means vidalia onions, nectarines, and watermellon. And going to the racetrack with my husband, seeing friends.

I’ve thought of a few more things as well. Summer also means my birthday, our family reunion, and an annual pig roast. :-) All of which are coming up within the next few weeks.

That special breed of films, the summer blockbusters. When films can be as big and sexy as they wanna be.

To me it means only five long hot more months till my favorite season—Autumn!