I’m halfway through my year of swimming! Today marks 183 days of swimming and there are 182 days left in the year. I have to say, I’m pretty impressed with myself for not (yet) missing a swim. There were some challenging days. Those early, crack of dawn swims with Covid, those road trip side-of-the-road lake… Read More Half Way! (Day 183)
I woke early to the mournful sound of a loon calling across the lake and jumped out of bed. I want to swim with the loon! Before I was fully awake I was standing at the water’s edge, listening to the chittering and chirping of the birds, the gentle lap of the water against the… Read More Looking for the Loon (Day 182)
Another Adult Swim day. As I mentioned in my last post about Adult Swim, this is where I first learned to properly swim under the guidance of an everchanging series of teens and young adults who make up the Lake Louisa Social Club staff each summer. When I started doing Adult Swim, my own kids… Read More Coach Hazel (Day 181)
Today I had my safest swim yet. In addition to Adult Swim, the club is offering a long-distance swim each Wednesday morning; a couple of staff/lifeguards will kayak alongside a group of swimmers to various destinations around the lake. This morning I was the only swimmer to show up and so I had two lifeguards… Read More Escorted to the Island (Day 180)
I’ve always been a swimmer in the sense that I’ve always loved to be in the water, splashing around in lakes and pools and oceans, but I was never a Swimmer. I didn’t really know my strokes and I’d never dream of swimming for exercise. The thing that changed all of that was Adult Swim… Read More Adult Swim (Day 179)
Our first time staying overnight in our house was New Year’s 2005. Snow blanketed the house and yard, thickly covered the frozen lake, and Kevin, Eliza, and I (Hazel was still growing in my belly) had a cozy celebration dreaming of our future adventures here. We stayed in the house several times that winter and… Read More Swimming with Isabelle (Day 178)
I was pregnant with Hazel when we bought this house. Kevin, Eliza, and I were living in Montreal and a colleague of mine at McGill invited us up to his cottage on Lac Louisa one long weekend. We’d already been thinking about trying to find a place on the water somewhere—an aspiration that seemed achievable… Read More Lac Louisa, Quebec (Day 177)
Today’s swim was a long sigh of relief. Relief to be in Canada; to be at this beautiful place. It was a loosening of my cramped muscles after the stress of yesterday followed by the body-contorting gymnastics of a red-eye flight across North America. It was refreshing and replenishing. I swam along the shoreline to… Read More Relief (Day 176)
This morning was my last swim in the bay until August. The Albany Bulb sent me off with a wild last ride through crazy waves, fog that rolled in and out, and blustery winds. The waves felt an especially fitting goodbye since I will be spending the next six weeks swimming in a (mostly) tranquil… Read More Goodbyes and WTFs (Day 175)
I swam with Gabe (whose birthday it was!) this morning at the Albany Bulb. It was a misty morning and when I arrived the 8 o’clock swimmers were just going out; a picture of colorful, bright swim gear against the gray land and sea. Gabe was going wetsuit-less for the first time and I was… Read More Misty Morning (Day 174)
Jenny Swimming 