Outdoors: Five summer essentials for this week

Deck chair

John Lewis are doing a fine line of light, portable deck chairs at the moment, including some Olympic 2012-inspired loungers. They stock a particularly handsome effort in the shape of the seaside-themed Punch and Judy deckchair by Hemingway Design, pictured above.

Cool box

A quaint woven basket will only get you so far if you want to enjoy a picnic properly - for keeping cool drinks just so, a cool box is essential. Try Halford’s family-sized cooler bag, a steal at just over a tenner.

Sun lotion

Complacent souls might not consider buying a bottle of sun lotion until they check in at the airport, but you’d be well advised to carry a bottle if you intend on staying out most of the day; if not for the sake of your skin, at least think of how attractive a nose like century-old stucco would look.

BBQ

Given the ‘temperemental’ nature of Scottish summers, big, unwieldy barbecues often seem overly-extravagant, particularly because, when the rain comes, they’re left outside to rust despondently in a corner of the garden. Nothing wrong with spending big on a good barbecue, particularly if you host regularly over the summer, but for small affairs a compact unit is usually best.

Sunglasses

Sunglasses: truly, an item to appeal to pragmatists and posers alike (some may prefer the term ‘stylish’, which does apply unless you choose to wear them indoors, in which case... )