Your Summer: Anya Wilding

Our new Journal series,Your Summer, captures the essence of summer through short films and conversations with creators from our community.

We each have our own version of summer —rituals, rhythms, places, pleasures.

What’s the first sign of summer where you are? That one thing that signals the changing of the seasons and the sweet beginning of longer, warmer days?

It has to be the Cornish hedgerows blooming. They absolutely light up with bright pink fox gloves and red campions, queen anne's lace and cow parsley. It's a pretty extravagant floral display that begins in May and remains in bloom throughout the warmer season here.

Narrow pathways of hawthorne, black thorne and the occasional elder in full blossom are one of the things that always remind me longer days are on the way.

Summer food can be picked fresh from the trees, its sun-ripeness can be smelled before it is tasted, its abundance can make al fresco dinners go on for hours, and its colours make street markets come alive.

What are the flavours of your summer? The tastes that transport you?

Elderflower is always the first scent and taste that reminds me of English summertime. Everyone starts making elderflower cordials and wines again, decorating sweet treats and deserts with their dainty petals or frying entire heads of the flowers and enjoying the first fresh strawberries of summer.

It's around this time of year I start making a variety of jams, from strawberry and meadowsweet to rhubarb and elderflower. Making the most of local fruit and foraged flavours to enjoy for the entire year. Opening a jar during mid winter truly transports you back to those long, warm days earlier in the year.

"Elderflower is always the first scent and taste that reminds me of English summertime."

Tell us about your perfect summer day – where are you going, what are you doing, and who are you with? What does it feel like?

My perfect summer day would consist of spending as much time outside as possible. Waking up early, making a coffee- iced if it's a warm day. Packing up my swimsuit, plenty of picnic foods, cold water and a good book then making my way to the beach to find a spot in the sun with my partner and our collie Nellie.

We're lucky to live in Cornwall where we have a long list of beaches to choose from. After a day of lounging in the sun and hours in the sea we would meet up with our friends and get the pizza oven lit to enjoy a feast together as the sun sets. Most likely getting in the sea once more before heading home!

"Food truly does transport me back to specific memories"

Smell can be so transportative and often takes us back to a time or a memory. Tell us about the one scent that defines your summer.

Fresh, seasonal fruit is one that always takes me to those warmer days. I don't tend to buy berries or fruit out of season in the UK so when summer rolls around, the taste of local strawberries, english blueberries and fresh plums are just that much sweeter.

I forage the elderberries that follow the elderflower and love to make syrups with honey to enjoy as a cold mocktail too. Last summer I visited Spain with a dear friend and we spent our days in the sun reading, snorkelling in the sea and eating the juiciest peaches with every meal. Food truly does transport me back to specific memories like that.

What are your summer rituals – the little things you do each day to make the most of long, lazy days?

I really prioritise spending my summers outside exploring the coast in Cornwall, we end up swimming almost daily in the sea as well as finding new coffee spots and trying new foods.

Wild camping is something I particularly love doing with the warmer weather, often in Dartmoor with beautiful expansive views across the moors. It means eating more outside too and often catching the sunset before winding down for bed.

Summer means different things to all of us depending on where and who we are. What makes your summer uniquely yours?

I think being in tune with the natural world holds me in deep presence and gratitude for each season we experience in England. I associate summer with the plants that bloom around me, the timelines that they flourish and go to seed to return again next year.

The birds that migrate like the swallows, swifts and martins are always a reminder of the days growing longer and moving towards solstice. It's finding joy in all of the adventures, both big and small.