What a long hot summer that was. After a year that started with almost Arctic conditions the weather pulled through and delivered us a summer worthy of its name. Long warm days that merged into weeks and even months, summer dresses were worn more than once, we got tans in the UK (ok I didn’t, but I literally never tan) and our umbrellas began gathering dust on the side. It has been nothing short of glorious. But as ever, you always want what you don’t have and I know I’m not alone in being just a little excited for the cooler weather to be breaking in the UK. Knitwear is creeping back into our wardrobes and that’s just one of the many reasons I’m ok saying so long to summer.

Summer is always a funny time of year, as wonderful as the warm and bright evenings are it always feels as though everything slows down to nothing short of a crawl with more out of offices bouncing back at you than you can count. It’s a brilliant time, everyone is that little bit more cheerful, but I always find my motivation to do anything slips during the summer. But mid-way through August I get itching for that September feeling. Maybe it’s a hangover from school days but for me September gives me a new lease of life. I feel like I can finally get back on top of all of my life admin, my weekends get a little quieter and I’m more likely to make time for a quick evening workout and meal prep session when I don’t have the temptation of a cold Aperol on the balcony to distract me. September is the perfect time to re-evaluate, work out what you still want to achieve this year and do it. 

Not only does my motivation seem to escape me during the summer months but so does any form of creativity, and I miss it. The promise of cooler weather, new colour palettes and an explosion of fresh trends does nothing short of a miracle for that though. Combined with some other tactics that I’ve employed of late (more coming shortly) I finally feel inspired again and can’t wait to embrace new challenges and adventures over the next few months.

Finally, my summer was nothing short of strange. Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing in so many ways and I don’t think I will ever forget the summer of 2018 but it definitely had more than a few moments that made me ask a lot of questions. A massive era of my life ended this summer and whilst I’m nothing but happy about that it doesn’t mean that it didn’t throw up a whole host of things and lead to a hell of a lot of change. I also made some big decisions throughout this season regarding what I want to be doing and how I want to be in many areas of my life. This summer also served me a hard lesson in why it’s so important to take care of yourself, and yes, I’m talking about more than just a quick bath and face mask on a Sunday night. I’m talking full-on listening to your body, prioritising your health kinda self care. We could all do with being a bit more frank about what taking care of yourself actually means and why it’s so important that we stop with the glamorisation of burning out and never taking time to even breath. There doesn’t seem a better time than a new, and slower paced, season to start acting on this.

So, Summer 2018, you’ve been a treat; you’ve been warm and sunny, filled with both adventures and lessons and I shan’t be forgetting you anytime soon. But for now I’m quite ok with saying so long and moving onto the next chapter.