The Feel of Summer

"Summertime/ And the livin' is easy" - DuBose Heyward's opening words to George Gershwin's aria from Porgy and Bess ring so true. As I write, it's half past eight in the morning; in the kitchen it's 22C, warm enough for one layer; comfortably warm. As it's been for the last few weeks. But when the heatwaves come, bringing night-time lows to 25C or more - that's no longer comfortable. But right now - this is perfect. Outside, it's still a fresh 16C, dew on the ground, but pleasant in the sun. No jacket required for walking, as it's warming up.

I pop out into the garden for sorrel and wild strawberries, then I'm up a cherry tree; bare-chested, enjoying the feeling of sun on my back. However, I scratch my right forearm on a twig; later I have to remove a tick from the small of my back (just as it was starting to drill into me). These are two reasons - the third being UV protection - why I'll normally wear a long-sleeved shirt throughout the summer months, no matter how hot it gets. But it's one-layer weather, not three or four.

Summer is the time for feeling creepy-crawlies taking a stroll on your skin - most are harmless; ticks can infect us with really nasty illnesses. Mosquitos /gnats /midges - komary to Poles (Culex pipiens) will bite, but C. pipiens is not (yet!) a vector of malaria or worse. Wasps and bees sting rarely. Stinging nettles irritate the skin, but it's said that this wards off arthritis. Or is it rheumatism? Or is it a folk tale? These - and the risk of sunburn - present if strolling for several hours in the summer sun - are the negative sensations of this time of year.

But overall, that feeling of physical comfort, the joy of sunlight on the skin takes me back to my childhood and adolescence in West London. The back garden, Cleveland Road. And recalling the one cherry tree there, from the top of which I could see towers of Wembley Stadium. As those who've lived in England and Poland will know, Polish summers are sunnier (average hours of sunshine in June: London 188, Warsaw 289). And drier (London has an average of 65mm of rainfall in June, Warsaw has 54mm). So those sunny days in childhood were rarer than the ones I enjoy here. And listening to the merry warble of songbirds on the działka, I am sure that they too are enjoying the warmth of the sun on their feathers - better than rain.

The right balance between temperature and humidity determines whether the organism feels energised or lethargic. When it's cold, you have to move. "There's no such word as mañana at twenty degrees below zero," to quote me. If you don't go out to the forest to bring in the firewood, you freeze to death. No such risk in early summer! An existential difference, somewhat blurred these days by central heating and air conditioning. Whilst I'm not saying we should return to those days, it is worth experiencing extremes of cold and heat to have a better awareness and connectedness with Planet Earth. As summer draws on, it becomes hotter, more humid and there's more chances of sudden and violent thunderstorms.

One of my best recent purchases in terms of utility per złoty spent is a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer, which also displays humidity indoors and outdoors, atmospheric pressure, moon phase and time and date. This, together with increasingly accurate weather forecasts in my phone, mean I can adapt better to the precise conditions of the day as the weather changes - a lightweight, waterproof jacket in my rucksack.

But heat = sweat. I tend to sweat easily, which enables me to cope well in heatwaves, but the downside of sweat is stickiness and smell (that's another sense). The stickiness requires more frequent showers than during the rest of year.

Another nasty summer feel for me is leg cramp - when nights are hot and sweaty, I am attacked by 'charlie horse' - either in the calf(s) or soles of the feet - muscles involuntarily contract, it's painful, waking me up - 'unknown aetiology'. My father had it too.

Summer engages all my senses equally. I love the summer - especially the early part. But were it here the year round (imagine our planet rotating on an axis that's at 90 degrees to its trajectory around the sun, rather than being off vertical by 23 degrees), it would become something we just take for granted. A summer that comes and goes is cherished all the more so.

This time 11 years ago:
On Jarosław Gowin and political leadership

This time 12 years ago:
Death of a Polish pilot

This time 13 years ago:
Doesn't anyone want to recycle my rubbish?

This time 14 years ago:
End of the school year

This time 15 years ago:
Midsummer scenes, Jeziorki