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.

Clockwise: Rhya's flip turn badge, Patrice's nightswimming badge, Laura's roadtrip-to-swimming-hole badge and my remembering-to-pack-post-swim-snacks (namely swim biscuits) badge.

I can still remember the last day of swimming lessons, where, after we finished the final game of frozen tag in the shallow end, Jennifer or Rebecca or Mark or Andrew would hand me my report card, towel wrapped around my shoulders, my mom waiting on the other side of the fence. I can still see the blue-ish photocopy of the girl swimming on the front of the Canadian Red Cross report card.

But even before opening it up to the the checkmarked boxes, or the empty boxes (damn treading water!), there was the thickness of the report card. If there was a badge stapled to the inside, you passed! Onto the next colour! But if it was thin, no dice.

(Now that I'm thinking about it, it's kind of like receiving grant acceptances/rejections in the mail these days...)

But badges! Rhya mentioned badges the other day on our months-long swimmers text thread and I literally dropped everything and started stitching.

• Flip turns? TOTALLY A BADGE! 
• Nightswimming in the nearby river? BADGE! 
• Driving, finding a different swimming hole, missing ice cream, the finding the right swimming hole? BAAAAAADGE! 
• And my own humble badge, celebrating when I remember to pack a post-swim snack so I don't turn into a monster on the bike ride home. 

But it's no fun to just have one badge to sew to your bathing suit! So I made docktail/rocktail badges too!



Clockwise: Caesers, Dark and Stormys, Aperol Spritz and a classic gin and tonic.

The days are getting shorter (eeek!) and the evenings are getting cooler. The outdoor pools are closed and the water in most nearby swimming holes is verging on too cold to swim in. And that can only mean one thing: time for one more round of happy hour rocktails on the shore of Lake Ontario.

This rocktail session featured Bloody Marys, our favourite 1 1/2 year old, and the most stunning September sunset.

And a mini Sketchbook Tour wherein we doodled our favourite swimsuits, past & present: 


Favourite Childhood Swim Suits

Rhya: The Striped One
My spandex suit of armor, that gave me the extra courage I needed to take on rowdy river currents, seaweed swallowed swimming holes, and leach infested ponds.

Lindsay: The Badged One
A gift from my Nana Ruth, it was black with a rainbow lattice up one side. It carried as many badges as I could fit from my hip bone to my ribs.

Laura: The Bellybutton Butterfly One
I think this suit was mine first and then passed to my sister. I loved it because my bellybutton showed through the hole in the butterfly and what kid doesn't love to show off their bellybutton? 


Favourite Adult Swim Suits

Rhya: The Ruffled One
Purchased at a Mexican Kmart, after my luggage was lost on a trip to see the coast. It was a brown bikini with turquoise ruffles. It had a good run, but recently had to be put to pasture… due to too many swims.

Lindsay: The Red & Orange String Bikini
My very first non-sports bikini. My very favourite swims have been in this wee number.

Laura: The Investment Piece that Goes with Everything
I hate swim suit shopping, so a couple of years ago I decided to just get a perfect black bikini top that fit me beautifully and pair it with whatever bottoms suited my fancy. "Perfect" and "fit me beautifully" = "cost a fortune" but I do love it and it goes with me everywhere.

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A final thought...
What will become of our swimmers this winter? Icy adventures? Frozen toes? Or just infinite dreams of warm blue secret swimming holes scattered across the universe?

Stay tuned fellow water wanderers... only time will tell.