Savour every last day of summer by doing some simple things that will lift your spirits and keep you buzzing with the joys of mellowing evenings and gentle dawns. Here's some ideas to get you started:
Go comet-hunting
If you can find a spot with little light pollution, spend an evening gazing starwards looking for comets. These balls of ice, gas and dust are rarer than the equally beautiful shooting stars that are common at this time of year in the Northern hemisphere, but if you are lucky you might just see one. Bring cosy woolen throws, candles and a bottle or two.
Swim wild
Whether doing laps in your local lido or splashing in a secret swimming spot away from the hurly-burly, being in cool water outdoors will make you feel alive and invigorated. Take your favourite towel, a flask of hot chocolate and a pullover to warm you up when you get out. Plenty of places have Wild Swimming groups - why not investigate and take the plunge?
Cook over a fire
Even if you aren't camping this summer, there's nothing to stop you setting up a campfire somewhere outdoors (with permission) and cooking a feast. Take a bucket BBQ along to the beach, or light a firepit in your garden - nothing tastes quite as good as a sausage you've saved from the cinders, or a haloumi kebab just toasted to perfection.
Forage
At this time of year the hedgerows are bulging with plump blackberries, apples are ripening and pears are turning golden in the late summer sun. Take some tupperware to collect fruit and berries, then make homemade jams and jellies with your bounty. Make sure you wear a good apron to protect your clothes from the rich juices. Collect seeds from flowers and vegetables that have gone over, and save for planting next year. There is something so satisfying about knowing that once winter is done you have seeds ready to go into the ground, bringing new life once more.
Take a hike
Explore where you live or go on an adventure somewhere new. Let your mind be curious, put away phones and worries, notice the landscape you are moving through - urban or rural, wild or busy. Think of walking as a time to connect to yourself and the ground on which you are stepping, rather than just a means of getting from A to B.
However you choose to spend these last weeks of summer, relish the ending of this season and the oncoming of fall.