Thinking Summer Thoughts

As soon as summer came, frivolous stick battles with my sister were replaced with merciless water fights, and umbrellas were used to shield oneself from the sun rather than the rain. As well as the fact that suddenly everything I think about is summery. While I'm still wishing it was winter, the things I'm pulling from my wardrobe are seventies cotton sundresses, summer shorts, vintage lightweight skirts, translucent silks, boater hats, and long flowing dresses.
I often tend to romanticise the opposite season to the one I'm in. When it’s winter, I only remember the best of summer, and vice versa. In winter I would wish for summer’s longer days, thinking about how the sun comes up at 4:30 AM and goes down at 7:00 PM - though choosing to ignore the fact that the sun is already burning by six in the morning.Instead, I would remember days when my sister, a friend and I would go riding around on our horses bareback, picking mangoes, mistletoe berries and lychees from trees. We would go swimming with the horses, jumping into the water, splashing and picking waterlilies. Then we’d dry off in the sun, watching the horses and laughing as they played and rolled in the grass. Although now, as it’s summer, I’m often thinking of the times in winter when I can wrap myself in shawls and curl up with hot tea or coffee and a book. Or how nice it is to go to sleep because my doona seems to be extra cosy in winter, or the feeling of going to sleep when it’s pouring down with rain outside. I can easily forget about the sluggishness one can often feel in winter, as well as the fact that winter’s weather gives awful grey light (which is not so great when you want to go outside and take photos!)

A couple of posts back, in this post, a few people in the northern hemisphere commented on it about longing for warm weather (while I had been talking about wishing for the cold!) it seems that it's not just me that's craving for the opposite seasons.
But while I don't cope well with the heat, I feel a little anxiety as Summer nears to an end. I want to get some more summery shoots done (and possibly a few more water fights.) And basically just embrace Summer while it's here, because when it's gone I'll be missing it.

So, above is a couple of photos from a very brief shoot last week. My sister's wearing a charity shopped rayon Tree Of Life dress. My dress (which has already been worn over a Christian Dior slip in a shoot here) I got from a local charity shop for $4, it's a Victoria's Secret silk dress that still had it's tags (showing it was $57). It was originally light blue but I dyed it teal (though of course you can't see the colour in the black and white photo.)
And below is some more summery pictures to fit the theme of this post which were taken last year in late spring.