Fun Monday #23

Jenni over at Prairie Air is the host of today's Fun Monday and in keeping with the start of the summer holidays for many of our children she has come up with the following challenge:

The topic for this Fun Monday is summer memories. Besides a few of your favorite summer memories, I'd like to hear what summer means to you. Is summer all about fireworks, watermelon seed wars, catching fireflies, days at the lake, family vacations, or the perfect swimsuit? What sights, smells, sounds, tastes, feelings do you associate with summer?

I have some wonderful memories of summer holidays (besides the ones I'm currently boring you with from France). In recent years I've been lucky enough to visit Portugal, Florida, New York and France but my heart remains in Cornwall as my all time favourite holiday destination. Cornwall is a county in the south west of England and I had my first holiday there at the age of six when we stayed in a lime green and purple caravan with no toilet or fridge and I had the time of my life. The year was 1976, the year of a heatwave (we don't get many of those) and I remember playing on the beach, body board surfing, bbqs on the beach, losing the jack ball from boules, walking the cliffs, seeing the lighthouses, going in a speed boat, eating ice cream (with clotted cream if that's your preference) and fish and chips. We went there for six continuous years but the weather was not always favourable. In 1979 the weather was appalling, this was the year of the fast net race when lives were lost and whilst walking the beach one day my dad saved me from being washed out to sea by an enormous wave. In 1982 we started holidaying in Devon where we played in a tennis tournament.

Years later we went back with our children and a new generation has fallen in love. We do all the things I did as a child as well as cycling on the Camel Trail. The children love Padstow as much as Sam and I did, the fudge and the ice cream not to mention Rick Steins fish and chips and we all agree that as long as the rain stays away Cornwall is our favourite holiday destination and where most of our summer memories lie.

To sum up summer for me is time spent with my family, sand, buckets and spades, fudge, ice cream, fish and chips, late nights, lazy lie ins, reading books, picnics and lots of fun and laughter.

The photos above were taken on our last holiday in Cornwall in 2005 and I hope it's not too long before we go again.