theharbourreader: (Default)
2025-07-08 07:25 pm

The Romance of Summer

 There’s something about summer that slows everything down just enough to feel alive again. Maybe it's the way the light lingers long past dinner, or the way even the sea seems to shimmer with a secret. Summer is a season of memory and mood—of sun-warmed skin and stories waiting to be told.

I’ve always been a little bit in love with this time of year. The kind of love that feels nostalgic and tender and full of soft, golden light. There's the obvious stuff: beaches and bare feet, books read in the garden, the tang of salt in the air. But there’s also the more intimate, almost invisible romance of it all—the scent of coconut sunscreen on someone you like, the lazy clink of ice in a glass, the sudden ache of a song that takes you back.

I get sentimental about:

๐ŸŒป Blanket mornings on the sand, when the world is quiet and the waves are still stretching awake. I like to take a notebook and a flask of tea, just to sit and feel small and grateful.

๐Ÿ“ First strawberries of the season—sweet, messy, best eaten with fingers in the garden, barefoot, bees buzzing nearby.

๐Ÿงบ Picnics that last all day, with friends or just a good book, watching shadows shift across the grass, no real plans except to stay exactly where you are.

๐ŸŽž๏ธ The colours of dusk in July—pale pinks and smoky blues, the way the sky feels like it’s holding its breath.

๐Ÿ“ป Old songs on the radio in a too-hot car, windows down, hair whipping, everything feeling like a film scene.

Summer always makes me want to write more, not just because of the beauty—but because it makes me feel so much. That dreamy, golden ache of a perfect moment that you know won’t last. I journal more often this time of year, trying to catch little flickers of the light before they vanish. Trying to remember what it feels like to be soft, open, and here.

What’s the romance of summer for you?

I’d love to know what memories come to the surface when you think about this season. What makes your heart race? What do you find yourself treasuring more this time of year?

theharbourreader: (Default)
2025-06-29 06:34 pm

Falling Into Book Blogging (and StoryGraph)

I hadn’t planned on spending my Sunday this way. But isn’t that always how the best things start?

Kit and I were chatting with someone earlier this week who casually mentioned book blogging - and before I knew it, we were talking about tracking our reads, posting reviews, and swapping WordPress tips. They recommended StoryGraph for cataloguing, and I’d never used it before. Out of curiosity, I signed up this morning… and suddenly I was knee-deep in uploading my entire book collection, trying to remember what I’ve read and when, and getting wildly distracted by all the mood and pacing tags.

I didn’t realize how satisfying it would be to see everything laid out like that - books I loved, books I forgot I owned, books I swear I meant to read in 2021. And even though I started the day just poking around, it ended up giving me a bit of clarity on why I want to start this blog.

I’ve always loved reading. But until now, I didn’t have one place to reflect on it - to gather thoughts, keep track of what I’m reading, and maybe connect with other readers. I’m not setting out to be a professional reviewer or anything. I just want to write about books the way I experience them: personally, emotionally, sometimes out of order.

So this is the start of Tales by the Tide - a little coastal-feeling book nook where I can share TBRs, thoughts, reading journals, and whatever else bubbles up. It’s early days (and I still have some serious tag-wrangling to do on StoryGraph), but I already feel like I’m carving out a space I’ll love coming back to.

Thank you for being here as I figure it out

I’ll be sharing my July TBR on Tuesday, if all goes well. For now, I’m just glad I followed the rabbit hole.

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”
— George R.R. Martin

– Blythe