It's 27 degrees out and the sun is blazing and there's no better place than the middle of a deep end, staring up at the blue sky and even though it's been two weeks, I'm still in deep denial that the outdoor pools are closed. But alas, they are closed and some mornings require sleeves and I am NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT.

It's still summer.

I think this might've been the best swimming summer I've had since I was eight. The railings in our backyard were always filled with drying towels, and I was constantly putting on a slightly damp suit, which feels gross, but is a sure sign of LOTS of swimming. My kiddos both fell in love with the water and we spent every weekend swimming, trying out new pools, tacking on picnics to afternoon dips, meeting friends and swimming swimming swimming, it was just the greatest.


Though I didn't get to swim with my swimmers, we managed to have docktails (well, rocktails as the docks were full of boating enthusiasts) and we traded summer swimming highlights.

It was hard for me to pick just one, but my highlight reel includes:
- Swimming on the Island (and not just going in for a dunk, but swim-swimming for 45 minutes!)
- My roadtrip to the Elora Quarry
- Lake swimming with loons (and with both of my kids!)
- A swim at Smythe Park pool late in August, where I had the entire 50m pool TO MYSELF for 45 minutes (!)
- And the (re)discovery of the Giovanni Caboto oasis, once on a Sunday at noon with my kiddos, where it was so empty and lanerope-less that I borrowed a pair of goggles from the lost and found and swam some impromptu lengths, and then for the rare unicorn that is a mid-week morning swim. It was my baby girl's first day of daycare and I celebrated with an entire fast lane to myself, while dragonflies flew over the turquoise blue. It was a wonderful start to a late August day and a perfect reclamation of time and headspace after a childcare-less summer.
- AND hearing about/seeing all the amazing swims people have gone on on Instagram and Twitter!


I have since put away the mountain of towels, suits, swim diapers, flip-flops, bucket hats and plastic floating zebra that has lived by the front door for the last two and a half months. It's now just my indoor pool gear—a boring one-piece, a flutterboard, shampoo, googles. It looks empty, that corner and makes me inordinately sad. (Maybe I should stick a pumpkin there?)

To fill the void, I'm reading Kerry Clare's beautiful ode to swimming and making plans for next summer including actually making it out to the east end for pool and lake swimming, more roadtrip swims, and, hopefully a trip to my favourite river.

In the meantime, if anyone has a pool/access to a hotel pool, holler! My suit is waiting by the door.