It's mid-July, which means the end of July is fast-approaching, which means August is nigh and I'm trying not to panic about ALL THE SWIMMING I WANT TO HAPPEN! There are some grand swims on the horizon—a swimming hole date with one of my best ladies (sans kids!), a trip to Toronto Island, swimming lessons for my oldest timed so I can swim while he does, a trip to my favourite Haliburton lake...but as I sit here with my hair dripping with chlorinated water, I'm pretty excited about the last few weeks.


I woke up at 5am for my first training swim in 23 years (!). It was a beautiful morning—Sunnyside pool was still and glorious, the sun just rising over the Gardiner Expressway. My hope was that the triathlon team I was swimming with was going to swim the length of Sunnyside, but alas, we did widths. It was fun to swim with others—I so rarely do! And it was a bit of a confidence boost to note that I'm a stronger swimmer than I'd previously given myself credit for. If it was lengths, I'd be all for 5am starts, but I'll stick to sleeping in to 6:30 and doing my widths whenever I can rustle up childcare.


One of my first dips was in my newly beloved Smythe Park Pool—down a windy, tree-lined path to its 50m glory, and waiting for me in the parking lot was a snapping turtle! And then I had the glorious 50m to myself for a long stretch and it was magic. I've been back a few times and it's such a lovely, quiet spot.


I also remembered that the 50m Giovanni Caboto pool has an 8:30-9:15am swim (strange time, I know!) on Mondays and Wednesdays so I biked over on a daycare day and went for a glorious swim. I've heard it gets a lot more full in the evenings, so if there's anyway you can swing it, I highly recommend it!



I also just wrapped up a poolsitting gig (and the house attached to it!). There were a lot of cannon balls and star jumps and I even hosted my very first pool party (and then another because it was so much fun the first time 'round!)  My youngest is a water baby through and through and would wail every time it was time to take her suit off (I feel you, kid!), but the best part about it was that my not-particularly-exuberant-around-water kid FELL IN LOVE with it. He started swimming (in a puddle jumper) on his own, and was just bursting with joy. It was the greatest.


And one of the very best things about this summer has been everyone's responses to our crowd-sourced user guide to Toronto pools! I've gotten so many notes from SO many people, some I know and many I don't, with tips and intell about pools, and notes about how they're trying out pools for the first time, or have been inspired to gor for a dip. It's all so very inspiring. Holler if you have questions about a pool, or if you have any info about one not on the list yet!! (List is here. I just updated it today!!)



Oh, and we started an Instagram account! All turquoise blue and beautiful. Come find us there!