Chasing Sunbeams: A Summer Blog Tag

So. First of all. I wasn’t technically tagged for this. But Lizzie Hexam at Starlight and Saucepans included an “anyone else who wants to grab it” clause after she completed the tag, so I figured that included me. Right?

Right.

The rules are as follows:

1. Acknowledge who tagged you! (see above)
2. Answer the questions! (hang in there)
3. Tag friends! (umm…)
4. Have fun! (well that’s a given)

1. What’s a book you read with summer vibes?

Hold on, lemme go check my bookshelves…and my book log…and my goodreads…

Three out of five of the Penderwick books have summer vibes, those three being The Penderwicks, The Penderwicks at Point Mouette, and The Penderwicks at Last. Clearly excluding the Penderwicks in Spring (it’s in the title) and Gardam Street has more….fallish vibes. If I recall correctly.

Chasing Jupiter is definitively summerish. Look at the peach on the cover. Just look at it. Oh and I just noticed that the trees in the background have peaches in them too *facepalm* I’m so observant lol.

Then There Were Five has some amazing summer antics by the Moffat kids: fishing, canning, hunting for arrowheads, swimming in the creek, a homemade fair/auction…just all kinds of good old-fashioned outdoor fun.

Here’s a quote from the book that pretty much sums it all up nicely:

“All summer!” said Rush, with his mouth full. “Think of it. All summer long.”
“All summer what?” Mona wanted to know.
“Just all summer,” Rush said happily. “I mean this is only the beginning of it. Dams and swimming and the garden and picnics and hot days and all. Oh, boy.”
“Sometimes it will rain. And sometimes we’ll get stomach-aches. And sometimes Cuffy will be cross,” said Oliver realistically.
Rush laughed. “A pessimist at seven.”

2. If you could travel anywhere this summer, where would you go?

Dream travel location is always London, but that’s not exactly a summer vacation location…

I realize that Florida is definitely a) extremely hot and b) extremely crowded seeing as it’s a prime vacay location but I would love to go to the beach. Maybe California would be better…I’ve always wanted to see Fort Bragg and the seaglass beach…

Or maybe I should wait and go in November.

4. Describe your favorite summer memory.

I guess just in general, all the fun we used to have outside in the summer. We have eight acres, and my siblings and I would be gone for hours.

We made forts out of sticks, slid down a muddy hill in the woods, had picnics, splashed in the eensy little creek, tried to boat across the pond in a little melissa and doug storage bin, raided the garden, played with the cats, caught fireflies, went on adventures, climbed trees, dug holes…

We had a glorious childhood.

(i say that like it’s over lol not quite)

5. Your ideal summer is filled with _______, _________, and _________.

My ideal summer is filled with books, friends, and…..we’ll say laughter. As in good memories and good times.

6. What is your favorite summer food?

Hands down one hundred percent snocones. They’re a fluffy pile of sugary ice. So good. Perfect for hot summer days.

7. Favorite summer activities?

I love going to camp every year. Camp and Christmas rank very high on my looking-forward-to list. I dislike the team games aspect of camp (which is odd when you consider how much I love camp and how much of camp is composed of games…), but the comradery, the homemade food (homemade bread. every day. need i say more?), the services…it’s so good.

My birthday is also in summer, so that’s a good time…

and usually I spend most of my summer reading. so there’s that.

8. How do you usually celebrate 4th of July?

I guess we don’t have an exact tradition. We’ve done a lot of different things.

One year we visited out-of-state family, two years we celebrated with my friend (the one I go to camp with every year) and her family, one year we were at a national event in St. Louis and saw fireworks all across the city skyline…

I suppose what we’re most likely to do is go hang out at our grandparent’s house. When we were smaller, we’d have fireworks and smoke bombs and those little popper things (haha who am I kidding, we still have the popper things 😉), but now that we’ve gotten older it’s less of a fireworks show and more of just a day to hang out together.

9. What’s a song that reminds you of summer?

Back Home — Owl City

You know what, I’m not sure why this makes me think of summer. Actually, it could be these lines in the chorus:

I’m headed back to tree lines
To free time and starry nights
To bonfires and fireflies

All these things are just very summery things to me, your thoughts? They remind me of when all my siblings and I and our friends would run around catching fireflies together in the summer evenings; it was so much fun.

Good Day — Forrest Frank

And this song is even harder to pin down as summerish. I honestly don’t know. A lot of Forrest Frank’s more lowkey songs feel like summer soundtracks.

That thought could be the result of hearing Forrest Frank all day every day during camp a few weeks ago, not sure.

10. What are you most excited for this summer?

If I had written this a few weeks ago, I’d have said camp (highlight of my summer). But that was two weeks ago and thus in the past.

I suppose right now I’m excited for all the little things.

Snocones, mail, chalk art, friends, free time, books, family, fresh fruit, my birthday (and subsequently a good portion of my friends’ birthdays too), long days, flowers growing on the side of the road…

OH AND I FOUND OUT THAT JOSIAH QUEEN IS RELEASING A NEW ALBUM IN AUGUST SO I’M VERY EXCITED FOR THAT!!!! any Josiah Queen fans here??

As for the tagging other people thing…well, anyone who wants to, feel free to borrow it!! or answer in the comments if you so choose.

hehehe if anyone cares to know what happened to question three ask about it…

Always,

Ava 😊