For the last week or so, it’s felt like summer has finally arrived in the North East of England with better weather, more sunshine, warm breezes and the chance to wear some of my new seasonal outfits whilst sitting out in the garden. Although I struggle when (if!) it gets really hot due to my very fair skin burning super easily, I love it when it gets up to around 22 degrees C (around 72 degrees Fahrenheit) especially on days when I can just sit and relax outdoors.
Every season, I create a personal bucket list full of activities, including things I always enjoy at that time of year, and new things I’d like to try (harnessing the power of firsts as advised by Meik Wiking in his book The Art of Making Memories). This year, I’m also taking part in the monthly bingo challenges being run by Kelseyleigh over at My Abiding Journal, which is currently providing even more ideas for making the most of my summer.
So, today, I thought I’d share this year’s summer bucket list and also some further suggestions to help you make the most of the summer months whether you want adventures, experiences, opportunities to relax and recharge or a combination of all three. I hope my post gives you some new ideas or provides helpful reminders about maximising your days throughout the season. I would love to hear about your plans for the summer in the comments and if you’re excited about trying something new in 2026 feel free to share so others can take inspiration from you.
Summer 2026 Bucket List
I like to start planning my summer towards the end of spring by creating a bucket list in my bullet journal. For me, the season begins on June 1st so you’ll see I have a few items ticked off already. The cupcakes I made were vegan strawberry ones and although I think I would slightly modify the recipe if I made them again, I had such fun with my afternoon of baking and the cupcakes tasted great too.
It’s not too late to create your own summer bucket list for 2026 and you don’t have to make it super decorative like I have. Just a plain piece of paper or a page in a journal will do. You don’t have to get everything on your list ticked off but it helps to have something to work towards and provide inspiration.
I’ve just signed my husband and I up for strawberry picking on Sunday and I’m excited to try this for the first time at a farm in Northumberland where we enjoyed visiting a pumpkin patch a few years ago. I’m going to take my DSLR camera with me to record our time there.
Bingo boards
There are loads of seasonal bingo boards available online which you could use, or you could have a go at making your own. I found this lovely example, which is good for spotting various signs of the season, and most of the items can be observed in the UK. It was created by Haley Post at MyMoonstoneKitchen, whose content I really enjoy on YouTube. Her printable can be found on Patreon as a free download if you sign up as a (free) member.
The monthly bingo boards I’m having fun with are available if you become a paid member of My Abiding Journal on Patreon and you can see glimpses of them on Kelseyleigh’s Monthly Journalling livestreams too. I stick mine in my monthly highlights journal and add photos or a description to say how I’ve completed the items I have checked off. Although some of the activities are perhaps more aimed at people in the USA with the creator being based there, it still offers plenty of food for thought and you can always tweak a few of the ideas if they don’t suit.
A Summer Reading Challenge
This summer, I thought it would be fun to set myself a little reading challenge to help me try to diversify my reading and choose some books that I wouldn’t ordinarily pick. I generally go for psychological thrillers and police procedural crime novels, but I wanted to push myself to opt for something different during the summer months. So, having explored various 2026 summer reading bingo boards and reading challenges I found online for ideas, these are my chosen categories:
- A book originally published in another country
- A historical fiction book to be listened to on Audible
- A children’s classic that I’ve never read before
- A modern classic
- A book published this year by an author whose work I’ve never read before
- A memoir
- A collection of poetry
I decided on 7 books for the challenge and I’m already on my second book which is Land by Maggie O’Farrell. Set in Ireland, it’s a historical novel which spans the years directly before and after the great hunger. I’m enjoying it so far and I’m glad I chose it as my audio book as the narrator is Irish actor Dane Whyte O’Hara which adds to the atmospheric and lyrical prose and enhances the reading experience wonderfully.
The first book was the children’s classic The Velveteen Rabbit and I found it available for free as an audio edition read by Richard Armitage. It was such a sweet little story and I listened to it to wind down after a busy day.
Seasonal eating
One of my favourite foods is in season in the UK in the summertime, and that’s strawberries which I like to enjoy in salads, with ice cream or yogurt, and, more recently in cupcakes! This year we’ve bought our own little plant, but, as it’s an alpine variety, we’ll only get mini fruits from it (as long as the flowers get pollinated!). I can see some tiny yellow fruits on the plant but I’m not sure if that guarantees they’ll turn into red strawberries or not. There’s also lots of flowers but I’m yet to spot a bee on any of them!
Other fruits we love to eat in the summer include watermelon, peaches, nectarines, cherries, pineapple, raspberries, plums and juicy tomatoes, most of which are grown in the UK. Eating locally grown produce (or at least from the UK) means that they retain their nutritional content, taste better and are better for the environment (less food miles). This recipe for watermelon, green bean, halloumi and mint salad is a favourite of ours and we even have own homegrown mint leaves to add this year.
In the summer, there are lots of vegetables that thrive here in the sunshine including peas, beans, courgettes, aubergines, peppers, lettuce and potatoes. When it’s a hot day, one of our favourite meals to create is a poke bowl (pronounced poh kay). This often includes layers of lettuce or spinach, cooled roasted veggies such as pepper, aubergine, butternut squash and broccoli, a protein source such as chickpeas and coucous, sweet potato chunks or cooled salad potatoes for the carbs. We then drizzle on salad dressing and enjoy our bowl al fresco at our outdoor table and chairs.
And, of course, as well as eating seasonal produce, you can also make some amazingly tasty fruity drinks too. Our current favourite is a refreshing ‘Cinderella’ mocktail which we found a recipe for last summer. It uses a combination of citrus flavours, sweetened with a small amount of grenadine syrups and, once shaken, is topped up with the spice of fizzy ginger ale. Here’s the ingredients to make two glasses full:
- 150ml orange juice
- 150ml pineapple juice
- 60ml lemon juice
- 3 teaspoons grenadine
- 1/2 litre ginger ale (or soda water if you prefer)
Add the orange juice, pineapple juice, lemon juice and grenadine to a cocktail shaker (or give it a good stir in a glass) and shake until combined. Divide into two tall glasses and add some ice. Top up with ginger ale. Enjoy!
Embracing the outdoors
Summer is the perfect time to connect with nature and enjoy spending lots of time outdoors. Being in natural environments improves our mental, physical and emotional wellbeing and is known to reduce stress and enhance our mood. I’ve been trying to spend as much time as I can in the garden this year and my husband and I have treated ourselves to a mini tabletop firepit which is perfect for sitting out in the late evening.
- Have fun playing an outdoor game – my husband and I purchased a bright orange frisbee last year and we took it to a large outdoor space at a National Trust place we go to regularly. We both had smiles on our faces for the entire time, even though the wind kept lifting it and sending it off in the wrong direction! And it was fantastic exercise too. Other lovely outdoor games include bowls, badminton, quoits, croquet, throw and catch or even trying to get a ball or beanbag in an empty bucket.
- Tend to your garden – summer is not the time for digging, moving plants or completely overhauling the garden but a few gentle maintenance activities such as hoeing a few weeds, deadheading spent flowers, checking on the progress of home growing fruit or vegetables helps to keep things progressing and looking good. It’s also important to do some early morning or early evening watering which allows the water to penetrate the soil and get to deep roots. Established plants should be watered deeply every few days or so, whereas seedling or delicate plants may require daily watering, especially during spells of hot weather. And, don’t forget to take time to observe your achievements and appreciate your hard work.
- Take a hike – There are so many beautiful places to explore in the UK including the lake district, the highlands of Scotland, Snowdonia in Wales, The Peak District in Derbyshire and surrounding areas, the South West coastal path. It’s best to avoid walking during the hottest part of the day (11am – 3pm) but an early morning or evening trek can be wonderful. Also, remember to take plenty of rest breaks to look at the stunning scenery and always carry plenty of water to take sips from throughout your walk.
- Go somewhere new and take a self-guided walking trail (you can find lots of these online or at a tourist information place) – depending on your preferences, this could be a historic tour of a nearby town or village, a nature walk through woodland, forest or around a lake or you could even follow a path around a nature reserve spotting birds from various hides. Just remember to dress appropriately for the weather, wear comfortable shoes and use sun protection.
Relax, reset and recharge
Just because the days are longer in the summer, doesn’t mean you have to fill every waking moment with tasks and adventurous activities. It’s also important to find time to rest and just be, especially when temperatures are particularly high and the Sun is blazing. Here are some ways to recharge and build wellbeing related activities into your routine:
- Enjoy an analogue hobby outdoors – do some reflective journalling, read a book, sketch some of the flowers in your garden or at a local park, grab your paints and have a go at watercolour painting
- Sit or lie outside (either in the sun with SPF on, or in the shade of a parasol or tree) and simply be. Try doing a mini meditation or other mindful activity such as using your senses to appreciate the here and now (take off your shoes and feel the grass beneath your feet, close your eyes and notice the different sounds around you, look up and watch the clouds moving and changing shape). I lay back on one of our reclining chairs a few days ago and I set the timer on my Fitbit for 20 minutes. I closed my eyes and relaxed for the whole time and those 20 minutes felt like a really long time. It was so good to just do nothing for a while – even though there was someone getting noisy building work done further down the street!
- Pack a picnic and head to a local park, the coast, a lake or riverside. Depending on your preference, you could take a picnic rug or research somewhere nearby which has picnic benches available.
- Give forest bathing a go – this restful, nature based activity was first developed in Japan but is now really popular in other cultures. This article from The National Trust provides a good introduction and also explains the wellbeing benefits.
Final words…
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading today’s blog post and it’s help you to come up with some lovely ways to make the most of Summer 2026. Although some of the activities will incur at least a small cost, there are also free suggestions if you’re living on a tight budget.
As I write these last few sentences of today’s blog post, it’s gone really dark and there are rumbles of thunder in the distance. And rather than thinking how awful the weather has turned, I’m excited to tick off an item on the summer bingo board – summer thunderstorm!
Wishing you your best summer yet!
Keeping it creative 