Shifting into Summer

Summer is starting, so I thought I'd write about shifting into the new season! This post is in a similar style to my previous ones from last year  on Saying Goodbye to Winter, Moving into Spring and Saying Goodbye to Summer, Moving into Autumn.

Note: If winter is starting where you are, you might like this post: 

Getting Ready for Winter: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/12/getting-ready-for-winter.html

While the shift from winter to spring is more optimistic for me, I find the one from summer to autumn a bit depressing (although autumn is a beautiful season). Going from spring to summer feels the most inspiring to me. 

Back in 2018 I wrote a post about getting ready for summer. You can read that here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2018/06/getting-ready-for-summer_3.html 

In that post I mentioned that are two "official" starts to summer- 1st June and around 20th June, the day of the Summer Solstice (also known as Litha; see below) which varies slightly each year. Some years it feels like summer starts sooner than others.

This year spring has been quite cold, although we had some nicer, warmer weather. It's only in the past week or so that I've really felt the shift towards summer.

The Summer Solstice is also known as Litha in pagan circles and celebrated as a seasonal festival. I've written quite a few posts about Litha, which I'll link to below. This year Litha/the Summer Solstice is on Wednesday 21st June. 

A heat warning was issued this past weekend, with some parts of the UK getting up to 30C (86F). (That's hot for the UK, although last summer was one of the hottest on record and it got up to 40C/104F in some places!) In Sussex (at least in my area) it's been around 26C (78F) so far, so not as hot.

It's nice to have hotter weather, although I do find it a bit hard to adjust when it gets really hot, because I'm not used to it!

The picture at the top of the post was taken in Hove Park at the end of May. I hadn't been there for a while due to family car problems, so it was good to go again. Although it wasn't that hot then, it was warmer and the atmosphere felt "lighter". 

I've written before that it takes me till about May to really feel "settled" into the year. I'm not keen on winter, and find it hard to adjust after Christmas and New Year. As I said in my 2022 Autumn-Winter Update post, this past Christmas  wasn't great. So I suppose it wasn't as much of a "comedown" after Christmas, but I still had quite a difficult start to the year. 

I got out of my regular park routine (weekly walks in the park) but hope to get back into that. I'd also like to go to the beach this summer. I did go for Beltane last month. I have been going to Happy Café meetups still, which has been good. I wrote a bit about it in my Winter-Spring Update.

I have been struggling a bit with anxiety lately, but I do tend to feel better in general when summer starts. I like the increased light at this time of year. The days are getting longer now (until the longest day on Litha/the Summer Solstice).

Here's a picture I took in the park last week: 

Buckingham Park, Shoreham-by-sea.

So those were my thoughts on shifting into summer! I'll end this post with a few links related to the season.

Here are a couple of summer themed posts that I've previously written:

Summer Round-up + Inspiration: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2019/07/summer-round-up-inspiration.html

Litha + Summer Inspiration: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2020/06/litha-summer-inspiration.html

And here are some links about Litha: 

Litha Round-up (my 2021 round-up of the previous Litha posts on the blog): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2021/06/litha-round-up.html

Happy Litha! (my most recent post with Litha inspiration): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2022/06/happy-litha.html

Podcast and blog about Midsummer/the Summer Solstice (Afura of The Writing Witch):  https://writingwitch.com/2020/06/24/wheel-of-the-year-introduction-to-midsummer-summer-solstice/

Post from The Outdoor Apothecary with info and celebration ideas: https://www.outdoorapothecary.com/litha/

Early summer bucket list with ideas for celebrating Litha from The Writing Witch (podcast/video): https://writingwitch.com/2023/06/04/summer-bucket-list/

How do you feel as summer starts? (Or how do you feel as winter starts? Wishing everyone a lovely start to the new season! :)

Photo at top of post: Hove Park. Moonsparkle 2023.