On our drive down to the bulb for our swim this morning, Kim and I joked about the coming winter, the plunging water temperatures. “I can’t wait for my antidepressant to return,” I said. “I know,” she said, “I need my euphoria drug.” Many think we are crazy for loving the cold water as much… Read More Keep Swimming
A very positive outcome of this temperature blanket I’m crocheting is the way it motivates me to swim every day again. I swam a lot in 2023, but it was remarkable how quickly my daily habit from the year before fell away once I didn’t “have” to do it. It feels good to be getting… Read More January in Victoria
Bleary-eyed with jet lag and the particular bodily displacement that comes from traveling such a long distance in such a short time, I arrived back in the stormy Bay Area ready to take my last plunge of my year of swimming in my favorite place: the Albany Bulb. It was pouring with rain as our… Read More 365 Days of Swimming
A couple of days ago, Kevin and I decided to cut our trip short and head back to California for New Years. Kevin’s been away for over a month and is missing home and I love the idea of doing my last swim of the year in my home waters of the Albany Bulb. So,… Read More Lost in Hampstead Heath (Day 364)
Today we left Essex to go back to London and start our journey home. It’s been a lovely week with Kevin’s sister and family and I’m not sure how I will cope without a daily hot breakfast cooked by my brother-in-law Phil, bottomless cups of tea provided by my sister-in-law Sandra, and endless adorable shenanigans… Read More Goodbye Essex (Day 363)
It was a blustery, rainy English day today. Not a day that screams at you to get in for a swim, but of course I had to do it and, of course, it was lovely. After a lazy, lounging morning and a rainy, brisk walk, we went back to Manningtree where I jumped into the… Read More Last Rainy Swim in Manningtree (Day 362)
Today we went for a lovely walk with the extended family to a village on the Essex/Suffolk border called Bures. My nephew-in-law likes it because it’s one of the hillier places in usually flat Essex. He, like Kevin’s family, is from Yorkshire and the dales are in their blood. We walked up a hill to… Read More Bures (Day 361)
When Kevin and I were first dating, his mom, Kathleen, started writing me letters. She’d tell me about herself, about Kevin, about her day. I’d look forward to those envelopes with her loopy handwriting; to sitting in my San Francisco attic apartment and reading them, a cup of coffee in hand; getting out my best… Read More Grandma’s Swans (Day 360)
I had planned to go swim with the Bluetits in Dedham again, but the draw of staying in my PJs and watching my delightful grand niece, Eloise, open her Christmas presents and dance around the room, was too strong. After lots of laughing and lounging, Sandra drove Kevin and me down to the River Stour… Read More Christmas Swim in the River Stour (Day 359)
For the last few months, ever since we booked our trip to England for Christmas, I’ve been delving into local swimming groups in order to map out the swims that would carry me through the tail end of my year of swimming. I was delighted when I discovered the Colchester Bluetits. The Bluetits Chill Swimmers… Read More Dedham Mill Pond (Day 358)