The UK parliament is in recess, schools are breaking up for holidays and in newsrooms up and down the country this marks one thing only: silly season.
Famously running from the end of July through to September the summer months notoriously create a dry spell for news, leaving editors and journalists scrambling for scraps of 'news' to fill pages and keep readers engaged.
To provide the best silly season story has become somewhat of a sport for local journalists - and now we're making sourcing the best examples a challenge to readers.
To kick off a new GuardianWitness assignment about the local news in your area (a series we will be continuing from now on) we want to see the best (and worst) silly season stories – from the most frivolous yarns like the lame duck who had a wooden shoe created by a local cobbler, to tall tales such as the image of Victor Meldrew spotted in space and the 'squirrels on crack' in the South London Press.
How to share your local story
Tell us about the local story which caught your eye - use GuardianWitness to upload a picture of the story in the paper or on the website - please be careful to not include images in your shot (sometimes just the headline will do), Make sure you add a link back to the original article online in your caption, as well as the name of the publication and a few details about the story itself.
The best submissions will be featured on guardian.co.uk.
Of course when September returns we'll be back to all seriousness and hope to use this assignment as a way to share some of the more newsy and interesting local stories from your area.
