Jackie and I went swimming in Ullswater last week. The rain in the morning was so heavy I discovered that, while a Dryrobe is excellent for keeping most of a person dry, under the right conditions it also has an ability to collect all that rain and funnel it straight into one’s boots…
It’s much more fun being soaking wet in a lake.
Jackie, in a bejewelled Ullswater
Amidst intermittent torrential showers Mother and I braved Ullswater’s choppy waters. Last time I was here, the water was a bracing 7 degrees, this time it was nearly 16. But Mother (age 71 and eleven twelfths), is not an outdoor swimmer and still showed the lake what she was made of. I am probably a bad influence…
Swimming with Mother in Ullswater, Cumbria
On Saturday we swam the five and a quarter mile length of Coniston, me and about 700 others. The drizzle was brightened by a procession of pink and orange tow-floats.
My second time at this fantastic event, but my first without a wetsuit, and despite the rain I had a fair view, randomly choosing to swim the majority of it breaststroke having trained front crawl all summer.
It kept me warm. A girl can change her mind.
So for the record: 3 hours 14 minutes, 20 minutes slower than last year, but most of that is the lack of a wetsuit. Wetsuits go faster, but they’re not as much fun, not when one has a cossie with ‘some like it cold’ printed on the bum.
This is near the start, on the way towards Peel Island, or Wildcat Island for fans of Swallows and Amazons.
…of a new selection of swimming pictures for 2017, see my other blog for details and photos: https://nancyfarmer.wordpress.com/portfolio/2017-calendar-is-it-cold-swimming-drawings-by-nancy-farmer/
Vobster, yesterday. It was indeed fine weather for ducks. Fortunately there we were to take advantage of it: a flotilla of five rubber-clad ducks. Two of us training for Coniston-end-to-end, three for the Dart 10K; both end-of-the-summer long swims, though I have to say I think that the summer may have ended early. It’s not like we weren’t going to get wet anyway, but cross your fingers if you would, for a bit of sunshine the weekend after next!
Nice Weather for (Rubber) Ducks
