I am sad that today is the last day of summer. I do not want the days to be shorter. I do not want the days to be cooler. I don’t want rain or hail or snow and I don’t want frosts (they’ll come soon). I like wearing skirts and shorts and sandals. I like having a suntan. I like the sunshine and warmth.

We like eating watermelon, grapes, peaches and berries. We love bbqs on the deck. We like hearing the crickets and frogs.

I tend to think that this has been my best ever summer. I’ve spent lots of time outdoors with my children and monte, enjoying the sunshine and warmth. We had a long summer holiday and now the children are happy back at school and Childcare. I am happy back at work and monte is happy to have us all out of the house again, so he can work in peace and quiet.

We’ve managed a bit of work on the house. The deck is complete, although it still needs painting (when the rendering is finished). The chook house is built and working beautifully. We have new sheds and new cupboards in bedroom #5. The laundry cupboards are almost finished – I’ve had a wall of cupboards, drawers and shelves put in). Monte has been doing lots of fencing. Out house block is fully fenced in and some paddocks have been fenced.

There’s still a lot of things on our house ‘to-do’ list for 2012, and we will get it all done. Namely: tiling, paving, rendering, painting.

Autumn’s not so bad. Our garden will change. I’ll go shopping for new clothes for my family (everybody is either bigger or smaller than they were last year). Our stove will be on more often and I will cook more soups and casseroles. It will be the season of making jams, sauces and chutney.

I’m sad about days getting shorter. We’ll be back to indoors activities – which is good, because I like that too. This year, however, we have more undercover outdoor space to enjoy during the colder months. The carport and deck are very useful places, and when the paving is finished in the north side, that will be a lovely, warm, sunny place to sit, dine and play.

Farewell summer. You have been so kind to us this year.