summer at home

Growing up we never went on a summer holiday in the sense I understood that word. I was on holiday from school, we would sometimes visit a different city in Finland, and that was it. Mostly I spent my summers at my grandparents' or at home, usually splitting the time between the two. I'd sometimes ask to go somewhere, to go abroad, especially when I heard about my friends' plans - who'd often go to the Canary Islands or somewhere else that sounded fun and more exciting than two nights in a Finnish town. But at the same time, I always loved my summers.

Recently I realized that I still had the same mentality about my summers, thinking I never really had a "proper" holiday. Perhaps even more so than before. I'd want to go somewhere fun and exciting, I'd see other people go on their summer holidays (or any time of the year, really!) and wish I was doing that as well. And, I mean, I still do; I love travelling, exploring new places, seeing more of the world. And I do have trips planned, some more concretely than others that I still just dream about. But at the same time, I really love my summers at home.

 
And being in Finland in the summer is lovely. Childhood summers are when I think I was my happiest and getting to do similar things I did back then is something I always try to include in my summers. People seem to think Finland is a very cold country, which it can be in the winter, but in the summer it is actually warm. Not the kind of scorching hotness you experience further away from the Arctic circle, but a really enjoyable warm where you can appreciate the warmth and not die. (I'd say my ideal temperatures in the summer are +20-25C and not completely sunny, so I actually love both the British and Finnish summer - suits me well.) I love going swimming, and am looking forward to and have been excited to find places to do that now that this is my first summer in Turku. My favourite is also testing all the summer's new ice cream flavours. I love little picnics, afternoons in the park, reading outdoors, going on smaller adventures in places that are sort of familiar, exploring unknown places nearby, just doing little things. And that's what I've been able to do so far this summer - and it has only started. I've hardly any plans to leave my city, and when I do it won't be far or for long. (Probably will be at my mum's at some point for some time, though.) And that still makes me very content, merely enjoying the slowness of living now that I can. Because I know this won't always be the case. I want to appreciate this more.

Because the small things are often the most enjoyable. I want to live the kind of boring life where I have a signature bench to sit on in one park/along the river, a picnic spot on the grass at another. Where I find a favourite route from the botanical garden to the beach (both from which these pictures are from). Where I become a regular in a cute summer café and the bus driver to the beach recognizes me. I want to be living my best summer life, so that this can also be a summer I remember I loved in years to come.