Waterblog

 Did you ever feel rubbish one day for no particular reason?  Everything got to you, there were problems everywhere, things were not working out? Then you went for a swim in a beautiful place - or anywhere outside, actually.  You spent an hour deciding whether to go.  You got in and 2 minutes later, felt wonderful.  All things back in perspective, happy as can be.  That of course is why we swim in cold water.  We speak of it resetting the brain.  It does.   If I am out of sorts I will spend a week swimming every day.  I just go, don't spend time deciding if I have time to go, am addicted to swimming or ought to be doing something else.  By the end of the week I feel amazing regardless of what else is going on in my life.  I am thinking well I have this. I can do this.   So here is a little known secret.  I don't like Christmas. I don't like New Year. And I really, really don't like the gap between the two wh...

 It has taken a while for me to post about the Loch Ken 4k.  There were 14 of us doing it.  The other 13 finished in under 2 hours. I took almost 3 hours.  I am not normally that slow, although I am slow.  Usually 1mph/1.6kph minimum and I had been doing 1.3mph before the event.   I had checked beforehand and been assured that being slow didn't matter. And usually I would not bother.  Most events have a larger and more diverse field.  I have entered others such as the Kessock Ferry,  the Great North and the Loch Ken 2k and been in the middle of the field, if thats the right word.   However, at the 2 hour mark I ran out of energy and did the rest on empty.  I had water and a snack with me but couldn't seem to stop and eat them because I was so far behind the others.  I did not enjoy the swim - but no way was I getting out without finishing it.  So I plodded on and well, I did it.    After a couple of day...

 I know I feel happy when I swim. I know it does me good.  But sometimes the reasoning goes 'I need to get things done, other people don't swim most days, I am tired, its raining, no one else wants to go.   So my new rule is just get in.  Because I always feel happy when I do.  And here's the thing, at the end, no one will wish they had done more work/dusting/weeding.  So instead of no time to swim, I have no time NOT to swim.  I will swim like my life depends on it. I will holiday at the beach even though I live at the beach.  And, ahem I have been known to swim three times in a day.  I had to.  I went swimming  first thing to make sure I got a nice high tide swim.  Then the kids came down and we went to the beach.  It was hot, so a wee swim to cool off.  Then someone did a shout out for an evening high tide swim and off I went again.  It seems that lots of small swims add up.  Because I recently did a...

 Okaaay a bit of pondering today.  This is my life aim: to take my final breath (hopefully not for a long time yet!)  knowing I have lived life absolutely to the full and can reflect with joy and satisfaction that I did my best to, well, have fun and be there for those I love.   So at this stage in life, every day I swim (which, let's be honest is most days)  is a good day. And that aim to live life to the full is what led us to move to the seaside in December.  That has been a roller coaster ride but once we had decided, it was like all the pieces fell into place. Deciding took a long time, because there were many benefits to where we lived before and we loved our previous house.  I didn't think we could afford the seaside town where we now live.  Wrote a list of all the things we wanted and really it was the only place that ticked all the boxes.  So we thought, let's aim for 4 or 5 out of the 6 things on that list and live somewhere el...

there is nothing like open water to bring home the fact that you are, well, a tiny speck in a vast ocean, world, universe. There could be 1,000 leagues of water underneath or just 3 meters its all the same if you are out of your depth.  But being out of depth is often safer in lochs and rivers as there will be less debris and fallen branches in the centre of the water.  We do actually float, just saying...  So here I am being a tiny spec in Loch Ken cos I can't find the photo from wednesday.   But we were tiny specs in that too! Lunderston was a micro adventure.  From our new house, I knew I could get the train to the dentist in Greenock, so after a wee bit of hesitation and making excuses, I  hopped on the Brompton (amazing folding bicycle, see my Create with Fibre and Knit 1 Bike 1 blog for its adventures round Scotland) cycled to the station and went on a low carbon jaunt.    Train to Greenock - with knitting of course -then a nosh up in t...

Loch Doon where it all began can you see us? At the ripe old age of 55 I thought I would never swim in the sea again. So thought I had better get on and do it. Bundled hubby into the car and off we went to Maidens beach, fairly near home here in south west Scotland. After a ten minute dip I was ecstatic and proud and continued going for occasional wee sea swims that summer. Loch Lomond - a new adventure Then one day, the world of swimming possibilities was revealed. We went for a walk and a cuppa as we often did at Loch Doon, near home. We actually used to live at Loch Doon, eight miles up a single track road and ran what was probably the most remote cafe in Scotland at the time. And I used to swim in Loch Doon a bit. We cleared the loch side beach next to the house of forty years of accumulated rubbish and it became our secret beach. Loch Ettrick. A favourite spot with the Sou Westers... So what the heck had happened? Do we develop a perception...