I have a confession to make. Summer puts me in a staggeringly foul mood. The weather is too hot, mosquitoes are out in droves, and beach life—which I had to endure every single day of every single summer when I was a child—is incommensurably boring.

Living in London, where there is no beach (unless you count the Ruislip Lido) and you can always rely on a generous downpour to cool the air and send mosquitoes packing had gone a long way towards reconciling me to the season.

However, things reverted to default three years ago when we started spending most of June and July by the seaside in Italy. I usually start getting cross in early June and only snap out of it after mid-September.

Thankfully, my friend Leslie came to the rescue last year when she came up with the idea of having a summer of fun—journeys, trips, excursions and dinner parties to fill the long hot days. Her ‘recipe’ helped make last summer a lot more bearable, so I am taking her up on it again this year (even though she hasn’t officially launched the summer of fun 2008 campaign—possibly because summer hasn’t yet started).

The plan is to cram as many jaunts, activities, crafts and interesting things to do every day between now and September that I won’t physically have time to get in a bad mood (or go to the beach, which is one and the same).

Captain at the helm



Caterina’s first boat trip

We have already started—last Friday, we all went to Sardinia for my mother’s birthday and enjoyed a long weekend of countryside walks, boating and bouncy castle action. Now we are getting ready to go to a small Alpine hamlet for a medieval style fair complete with knights’ joust. I am also planning a trip to Eurodisney (another Leslie-induced idea), and excursions to Hever castle, Legoland and Leeds castle.

Looking for enemies among the bushes


Playground fun


Marvelling at everything

But there are so many more days ahead that I need more ideas, preferably of stuff to do while at the seaside or at home. So if anyone has any brilliant summer plans to share with me, please shout!