29/08/2026
Life and Bank Holidays don’t come with guarantees of sunshine. We can moan—and sometimes we need to—yet we can also decide to ‘do it anyway’, despite any grey clouds or rain.
Last night, the forecast was for heavy rain and strong winds. Could I swim in the morning? I knew there would be wonderful high tide at Portland Castle, which would make a swim there really great.
I woke up this morning to rain, but the wind was light. So, I decided to drive to Portland Castle instead of walking there. In my car, I wriggled out of my clothes - my cossie was already on. I ran from the car, wrapped in a towel, clutching my cap and goggles to the slip way. No one else was mad enough to be there. I walked into the sea, dipping my shoulders under the water - cool, but not cold.
I swam with easy strokes, rain drops tip-tapping on my cap. Breathing in, following my hands as they cleanly sliced into the water, catching it and pushing back, breathing air out in bubbles under the water, head turning and breathing in again. Arms with high elbows and a lazy kick perfected over decades in my love affair with swimming in the sea.
Then, magically, at the end of my swim, a large shoal of fish, each the length of my hand, surrounded me. This is rare near to the castle - how wonderful to see so many of them, inches from me.
It would have been easy to have stayed in bed, to not go out in the rain. Yet, it is sometimes in these moments we get to experience an unexpected joy or pleasure.
I’m still hoping for sunshine for tomorrow - I have a garden fence to paint 🤞- but if it’s not to be, I will splash in the puddles instead 😊.
