The Overview #1 June 2024
More time outside, a whinge about the weather, a love note to 10pm sunsets and how to take that sweet summer feeling into every day.
Welcome, in June’s Overview I explore:
📚 Why Le Projet de Vie?
☀️ The best month of the year (spoiler it’s June)!
🌹 Can we really romanticise life?
I have been ruminating on a plan for life (or projet de vie - if you will) for a while now. I clearly understood what I didn’t want from this short but sweet life but struggled to define what, in fact, I did. Time eventually makes everything clearer and the hazy outline of this projet de vie is starting to form. Perhaps you would like to join me for the journey, explore how to live a life you love, be a part of a growing community and we can figure it out together.
June is my favourite month of the year, the bright quiet mornings and the long evenings when the sky feels so vast. I love laying in bed at 10pm with the curtains open staring at the sky turning orange then pink into dusky red and eventual darkness. Meals are eaten outside, the back door open so the dog can switch between sunbathing and flopping on the cool kitchen floor.
Unfortunately most of June this year was overcast and windy, with dog walks rushed and timed to avoid the showers. I don’t mean to perpetuate the national stereotype and complain about the weather but the last eighteen months have been so wet here that I must allow myself a brief moan. Footpaths in the Forest have been muddy at best (streams at worst!) and I leaned on the promise of sunny days ahead to keep me going through months and months of drying out waterproofs, hosing down wellies and cleaning walking boots.
But eventually the end of June came and with it those 20C plus temperatures that make life feel so much sweeter. There is a magic that comes with warm, sunny days in a climate where they are by no means guaranteed. The normal life obligations remain, work still goes on and chores still need doing, but the routine gets adjusted. Shifting the dog walk from a rush post work to an after dinner, slow stroll once the temperatures have cooled feels like a treat before bed. You can’t tell me hanging out washing in the warm balmy sunshine of early summer isn’t infinitely preferable to a grey windy day, despite the fact the chore is arguably the same.
Anyone frequenting the social media space over the past year will be familiar with the phrase ‘romanticise your life’ and whilst I don’t know if I will ever get to the point of thinking emptying the dishwasher or cleaning the bathroom romantic I do think there is a kernel of wisdom in the sentiment. I do it naturally when the sun shines (see aforementioned hanging out the washing), choosing yesterday after work to take things slower and sit outside with a book for 15 minutes and listen to the birds rather than tick something else off the perpetual to-do list.
For me, when the sun is shining the best way to romanticise my life is to spend more of it outside, taking advantage of any excuse to do so, even if that is sorting out the recycling bins or spending 10 minutes eating my breakfast in the garden. It is a tiny part of my day all things considered, but when work involves at least eight hours behind a desk those precious minutes make my day, make me feel different. The little things do matter!
Of course, it is easy to go slower and romanticise life on a sunny June day, the real trick is to keep it going regardless of the weather or season, here is how I will be trying:
🍓 Eating breakfast outside when the weather allows and at the very minimum not at my desk reading emails!
🌊 Breaking up the routine once a week; having a BBQ on a Wednesday evening, popping to the beach before work to take a few deep breaths. Easy to do in summer, harder to maintain in the monotony of January.
🌾 Ditching headphones on walks outside. Being more present with nature, enjoying the time spent with my dog, no matter how addictive my latest podcast obsession is.
So lovely to glimpse into your routines and life in the New Forest again. I spent a birthday weekend there in April and was just so enchanted with it. June is wonderful but I love the April days that teeter into summer, cold and fresh in the mornings and nights but oh how the first embrace of the sun after a long winter brings us all back to life.
Thank you 💙
April is a lovely month isn’t it. The promise of longer drier days ahead and nature starting to come back to life. A wonderful time to visit the New Forest I am so glad you enjoyed your time here!