A new drawing I’m delighted to show you… this is another from my 2027 calendar, which you can buy here:https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/4589565933/ (if that doesn’t work, click ‘shop’ in the menu.)
The title probably tells its own tale, but I wonder if you can tell which is North and which South? Leave a comment and tell me if this matches up to your experience of fellow swimmers if you are one. Or even if you aren’t. And here – below – is the tale, as I wrote it for the calendar…
“The North South Divide”
On the shore of Ullswater we settle into two groups. I wander over to the efficiently changing Cumbrian Contingent, which is a flurry of activity: Dryrobes are coming off, costumes are going on, there is an air of intention; the lake beckons.
I stand there, talking.
“Hey Nancy”, says one of them, glancing past me “Team Somerset have got flasks out!”
They have! Realizing I am lagging behind simply talking, I rush back to the Somerset side and pull out my own flask. Here, there is quiet air of a group of people ignoring a freezing cold lake, though in all fairness there is nothing else quiet about this group. Talking is our special skill. The lake may beckon but we can keep this up almost indefinitely… until pushed, by biological pressure and the effects of warm liquid, to enter its chilly embrace.
Meanwhile, the Cumbrian Contingent, observing no significant action on our part, have slipped into the lake, almost in formation. “We’re warming up the lake for you!” they chide.
At once there is an interesting reversal. As I have noted before, the peculiarity of Cumbrian efficiency is that it ceases the moment the swimmers enter the water. It is why they are so fond of tow-floats, not only in large lakes like Ullswater, but in the teeniest of tarns. They get in, they bob, they float, they talk. Beware, these Sirens are a trap for the inexperienced Southerner: they will talk until you are blue! And then, once out of the water, they dress and are off, vanishing into the morning mist.
Whether this North-South divide arises from geography, geology, weather, latitude or culture I cannot say; but Rita, who has recently moved from Somerset to Cumbria, is on a one-woman-mission to cure the Cumbrian swimmers of unhealthy haste, with the help of a little flour, butter, eggs and a pinch of bicarbonate of soda: she has taken to making scones as a post-swim delaying tactic.
Tactical Scones are very hard to resist.
