Smart lights for the patio, robots for the pool and lawn—make this summer better with a bit of tech.
Despite temperatures being in the 90s for weeks, today is the Summer Solstice, the actual first day of summer! And while you might already be sweltering, summer is certainly worth celebrating. Longer days and warmer temperatures give you every excuse to have a friend (or five) over to hang out by the pool.
What’s less fun is setting up and cleaning up the house to host summer parties.
Here’s the gear I’m using this summer to make my patio as inviting as possible and keep my yard tidy…all with as little effort from me as possible.Nanoleaf Outdoor String Lights
Nanoleaf’s latest outdoor string lights are possibly the best accent lights they’ve ever released. Matter-enabled, they come in 15, 30, and 45ft. strands. Before you even get them out of the box, the heft of them makes an impact. That’s because the durable plastic housing around the LEDs evokes cut glass bulbs. They’re beautiful and look great even when they’re turned off.
Once switched on, they look absolutely brilliant, with over 16 million available colors. They can display a single color (if you only operate them via Google or Apple Home apps, you’ll be stuck with single colors) and have a wide variety of preset and downloadable gradients and patterns on the Nanoleaf app. You can also have them react to your music and pulse with the beat.
The Outdoor String Lights are expandable up to 147ft. and have IP65 water resistance, so you can keep them up all season long. Starter kits are $129.99 on the Nanoleaf site.Mesa XL Solo Stove
I’m always up for a bit of refined low tech and the Mesa XL Solo Stove Whistlepig Edition is about as refined as they get. It’s essentially a tiny tabletop firepit for all your Smores-making needs. But the Solo fire burns so cleanly you won’t have to worry about smoke. The Mesa XL rests off the table surface on a stand and takes either pellets (the ones you use in your Traeger will work) or mini wood staves.
And this is where the collaboration with Whistlepig comes in. They’ve created a Camp Stock wheat whiskey that’s aged in barrels that are charred using Solo’s smokeless technology, imparting vanilla and caramel flavors of the burnt oak without any smokiness. It imparts a surprisingly smooth, easy finish.
