Welcome to Where Bloggers Live: 2025! Happy New Year! “Where Bloggers Live” started out kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…with bloggers! We all like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes, interests, and lives, so every month this wonderful  group of seven bloggers family of amazing women shares their work-spaces, homes, towns, and thoughts, with posts based on specific prompts. It’s been so interesting over the years to see the different ways each of us interpret the topics.

Let me be clear: summer is not my favorite season. I don’t thrive in heat. Or humidity. Or blinding sunlight. But even I have to admit—there are things about summer that I really do love.

Here are five of them:

1. Summer Blooms

Flowers everywhere. Garden tours, roses blooming through picket fences, buckets of cut flowers at roadside stands. Potted plants on the patio. Summer is lush and floral…and I love that.

2. The Beach

Okay, I love the beach year-round. But a summer beach day is its own special thing.

It starts early…pre-8 a.m., slipping past an unmanned toll booth, stealing free entry like some kind of coastal criminal. The beach is quiet. I can set up wherever I want (which is where the ocean comes almost to my feet). No crowds yet. Just me, the waves, smooth sand, and a few gulls waiting for their morning meal.

The day unfolds slowly: dozing in the sun, dunking in the water, waking up sweaty and salty. The ice cream cart guy singing his song: Ice Cream! Get your ice cream here! Fudgesicles! Popsicles! Fuuuudgy Wudgy Bars! I eavesdrop on the family next to me. I watch never-ending games of beach paddleball. Pretzels arrive with a friend. The seasoned fries from the concession stand are perfect. My cheeks get just a little sunburned.

And the ride home with air conditioning and radio blasting is heaven. Yeah. I really do love summer beach days.

3. Ease of Dressing

Winter dressing is a logistical nightmare. Layers upon layers: “Do I need a sweater under this?” “What about gloves?” “Should I bring a backup scarf just in case?” “Light jacket? Medium jacket? Heavy jacket? Forget it, I’ll bring them all.”

Summer? So easy.

Put on dress. Leave house.

That’s it. No coat, no “oops I forgot my ___.” You forgot nothing. You are fully dressed in one step. It’s a tiny daily miracle.

4. Long Days

It’s like we spend ten months waiting for two glorious ones when the days stretch out loonnggg.

Even though I also adore winter evenings when I’m in my nightgown and on the sofa in front of the tv by 5pm, there’s something about long summer nights that’s just magical.

Dinner on the patio in the long shadows at 7:30. A walk at 8. Sunset that lingers until almost 9pm. Summer days give us the extra time we need to just breathe….

5. Eating Outdoors

This might be my favorite of all.

The moment I see a cafe owner dragging tables out onto the sidewalk, I feel joy.

Brunch with a friend at an awning-shaded table. French toast. Brûléed grapefruit. Bottomless mimosas. Enjoying the food, the company, the fresh air, the people show parading past. Life is good on those days.

And here in Korea, heading out after dinner to a crowded, noisy pojang macha, sitting at tiny plastic tables under the stars, drinking and laughing the night away.

So no, summer’s not my favorite season. But it’s got its charms.

I hope you’ll take a look at my friends’ blogs as well, to see what their favorite things are about summer…

Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Em at Dust and Doghair
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Leslie at Once Upon a Time Happily Ever After
Sally at Within a World of My Own