Yesterday's busy morning mind on the computer distracted me from the joys of anticipation for a dip... I really notice when I'm in my headspace... Weather was not particularly inviting, cold, wet, humid... so I was comfortable indoors.
Then, wild woman came with her sage advice and reminder: 'You'll enjoy it', which happens every time... and so I did, and I loved it.
It was particularly amazing when I took the picture of embracing the elements and putting my focus on the river, as...
2023-10-24 07:55:59 +0000 UTC
View Post
It's incredible how a week can change the experience of wildswimming... Now with colder water temperatures for me is about maximising contact and connection with water and surroundings even more.
Each time I go to the river these days I'm swimming half or a fourth of what I used to weeks ago. Changing habits with the season, without stopping swimming, or dipping. Being gentle to self, not clinging onto expectations, surrendering to what it is. Loving the moment, being more conscious o...
2023-10-23 05:36:08 +0000 UTC
View Post
More pictures from today, hanging out and floating with water plants, algae... so deeply relaxing
2023-10-20 11:37:29 +0000 UTC
View Post
My early morning swims have been replaced by yoga in the last few days.
My body needed some gentleness rather than going to the river when it's still pitch black... Listening to one's needs is so important... I went around midday, it was a natural transition between activities, and a very welcome one. I went when it was drizzling, grey, heavy... time stopped in the water, or, time seemed to stretch... just water, birdsong, aquatic plants, the smell of water mint, me... breath... Purposely...
2023-10-20 11:34:23 +0000 UTC
View Post
Today I swam looking at cormorant drying its wings... I find them so elegant and peaceful; always liked them and I even have a Qigong image for them!
I've always remember (or I hope at least) a day a few summers ago, on one of my favourite beaches in the South of England, whene cormorant and I were mimicking each other, drying on rocks sticking out of the sea, with our wings wide open. In and out of water. It was such a beautiful day 💙
2023-10-18 19:25:27 +0000 UTC
View Post
I don't remember the last time I didn't have a swim in the morning. This morning I didn't feel it; there was something in me, in the air, that didn't feel it would be a good idea.
Despite the sadness I didn't go. I just listened to my instinct, my body. I had a shower instead. Strong winds appeared suddenly. I heard a loud crack outside, I looked through the window to the dead trees that overlook the entrance to my sacred swimming place... I saw nothing from the distance.
A fe...
2023-10-17 19:05:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
This morning I surprised myself again for keep swimming the same distance every morning for a while (a few months?), despite the drop in temperatures. At the beginning I thought that I would not be able to keep up but once in the water and in the flow it felt effortless, like really tuned to that atmosphere. It's the extension of myself, I feel so much at home when I swim there, and do a scan to see the subtle changes (the river carries more water after the rain, noticeable in a couple of cm ...
2023-10-15 13:33:31 +0000 UTC
View Post
Yesterday was a festive day across the country so the night before we drove to sleep by the sea. In the morning I had a gorgeous time at the beach, while sky was still pink. There were s couple if fishermen on their chairs, and a couple of walkers with their dogs. The temperature of the air was comfy, despite the wind. Sea was delicious and I played with the waves, and did not get in. further than my knees I floated and let myself be drifted away for a bit, testing the currents, who were ver...
2023-10-13 05:46:52 +0000 UTC
View Post
Do you also experience awe every time you see moon?
She gets me every time, especially those moments when I instinctively look above and she's exactly there, even more in awe when this happens in the water. This exquisite body of beauty, ever changing to our eyes 🙏🏽
This morning's swim was delightful. Still did my normal rounds, but definitely feeling colder since yesterday, and start to notice the post dip red skin flaring up... the crab effect!
May you have a love...
2023-10-11 07:03:46 +0000 UTC
View Post
Ohhh what a time in the sea and by the sea this weekend. So pristine, warm and calm yesterday, in a new beach... another gem for the collection. Hidden by the cliffs, steep walk down, only a few people, even less on the rocky side. Constant in and out of the water, Qigong practice, relaxation, and some reading on the rocks. Restorative. Highly needed!
It was a joy to stay overnight in the van by another beach, so I could have a few swims by myself before the crowds started to arrive.
2023-10-08 18:46:51 +0000 UTC
View Post
Two herons and a kingfisher joined me while swimming today. Special encounters and a very witchy moment.
My partner lost an amulet in the river weeks ago. While diving I thought I had seen it, but it was a pebble... Later on, I did something out of the ordinary, as if I was called by something... and walked upstream to sunbathe for a couple of minutes. I crouched down, looked down and there it was, the amulet!!! I took it to the shore in awe, kept swimming and saw the two herons, one ...
2023-10-06 18:05:44 +0000 UTC
View Post
The best thing I could have done at midday when my head felt like an octopus - with too many tasks, plannings, doings, messages... simultaneously - was to leave it all for a bit and go to the veggie garden and the river (being self-employed deeply suits me).
All the speediness, rushing, mental overstimulation dissolved. I took perspective on things, and it's not that I do need to do them, it's just that clarity made its way, and so the wise words of the sage in me.
Anchored to...
2023-10-05 14:52:37 +0000 UTC
View Post
Maybe my facial expression doesn't do justice but I'm loving this colder swims, really invigorating and relaxing at the same time.
Today I shared the space with heron, robin and aquatic blackbird (literal translation from Spanish, mirlo acuático, I don't know if they are called this in English! They are so cute, black with white chest, and a characteristic jumpy up and down movement when they are in rocks... unbearably cute).
Yesterday rain arrived and a drop in temperatures....
2023-10-04 10:05:21 +0000 UTC
View Post
Some kind of entity has been making sculptures piling up pebbles and rocks recently... and it wasn't me!
It started gently, discreetly... but the day I came back from Scotland it was soooo full of them that I got overwhelmed, sad, angry, frustrated... it was too much for me, and I cried with passion,.
Every rock had rocks and pebbles balancing on top. I could not stand the human intervention piece in that stretch of river at that moment. It really stirred me. I felt somehow vi...
2023-10-03 14:39:56 +0000 UTC
View Post
Delicious swim and post swim in the sun... I'm doing a training online this weekend,which involves too much computer... so any opportunity to touch the water feels like paradise! 🙏🏽
It's really warm again these days... strange weather for the season... what are we doing to the climate? Paradox between enjoying the warmth after the cold water and feeling the pain of the state of the planet
Any thoughts?
May your day be delicious
2023-10-01 11:01:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
This morning I woke up very stirred and with heavy soul.
Parts of me were activated last night, and I had a nightmare and woke up mumbling what I was screaming in the dream.
This dream reminded me of another one that I had 1 year ago. Slight different content but woven with a similar thread.
Parts of me that need tending, and that I want to tend, to hold with compassion, like this river who holds me, and the multiple parts of my psyche. Grateful for this place 💙
Tha...
2023-09-30 15:28:28 +0000 UTC
View Post
Two pictures taken just before my swim and another two just after. Today was the darkest swim of the season and I'm still able to swim my morning routine; it feels amazing. I wonder if I'll end up bringing a torch...
So so quiet... just a few birds chatting away...
May you have a great weekend and are able to see full moon✨
2023-09-29 12:34:40 +0000 UTC
View Post
These days swimming at dawn is a real gift for the senses... pictures don't do justice of the intensity of the reds, pinks, purples and oranges in the sky... Walking under those tones before immersing in the water is a real threshold to cross, into a mystical world that slowly changes and makes itself more visible on each stroke.
Giggles of joy and sighs of awe; feeling full of life there, embraced by the subtle light, birdsong and the peacefulness of a hamlet still asleep.
Cr...
2023-09-28 07:26:32 +0000 UTC
View Post
The temperature and the feel is so changeable every time, every day... To get in the water is a bit of a 'uuuhhhhh', then it feels gorgeous, then sometimes is like 'can I do one more round?, or 'wow, that feels like brain freeze right now'... definitely more self-reflexivity now!
I'm really enjoying these swims, especially when sun is out and warms up a bit, even if it's only for the warming up effect (and the visual delight!).
2023-09-26 19:42:16 +0000 UTC
View Post
Definitely getting chiller in the morning. I went for my dip around 8am and yes, it was fresh! Dragon's breath while swimming, very mystical surface of the water. I managed to swim a third of what I've been swimming lately in the morning. I want to keep on with my acclimatisation, so I can keep swimming in the months ahead, rather than just very short swims and dips. I still think the water in my river is colder than the Scottish lochs 😅
2023-09-25 14:38:48 +0000 UTC
View Post
This morning I celebrated the threshold of the Autumn equinox swimming in a new beach. Beautiful, wild one. Sea was strong, currents powerful, so I played with the waves, and let myself afloat not far from the shore to be drifted away with the currents. Water temperature was absolutely delicious. And the autumn light too, warm, welcoming and cosy.
Equinox blessing!
2023-09-24 15:25:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
Many of the swims in Scotland were in the rain and this is a collection of those moments... It was easy to stay in the water, but to get changed in the rain and cold is a not very glamorous art, and it needs to be quick!
Very pleasurable they were, every time was different. Some of the pictures were at dawn, just after getting up... Wakin up after a night in the dorm, with little oxigen for all of us... highly necessary immersion to clear the head! others are from the end of the day a...
2023-09-22 17:42:41 +0000 UTC
View Post
Yesterday's reunion with my river, after a day and a half to travel back from Scotland, brought me to tears, a very unexpected outpour, a combination of unrecognisable structures and grief, exhaustion, premenstrualness, processing and releasing what the ecotherapy immersion moved within.
This morning I woke up with my blood, another bodily outpour manifested, that joined river and soil. Offering my blood back to earth, month after month. Such an image to imagine that the iron ions it ...
2023-09-21 19:24:08 +0000 UTC
View Post
During our ecotherapy course in Scotland we had a bit of everything weather wise. We were lucky because sun kissed us on a few occasions. These are the pictures of the only swim in the sun! It was glorious. Apart from this time I was swimming with a few of my wildswiming peers, but on this occasion I happened to be by myself, just after finishing the course's sessions of the day.
Silly smooth water, as I've never touched before. A real pleasure to swim there. Some days I could have st...
2023-09-19 16:47:42 +0000 UTC
View Post
5 days of unplanned disconnection with the virtual world in a gorgeous place on earth, the Trossachs in Scotland.
My Ecopsychology-ecotherapy training took place there.
Getting there and leaving was an adventure in itself - a test of resilience - that involved taking too many flights, getting 1 hour sleep at Dublin's airport floor, feeling like a zombie the following day wandering around Glasgow (and resting on the ground of the necropolis with the sun on my face) until I could get a ...
2023-09-19 16:35:43 +0000 UTC
View Post
Great time hanging out with alder and current!
And new adventure ahead... Right now waiting at the airport... I'll keep you posted. Im excited!
2023-09-12 16:54:36 +0000 UTC
View Post
Faery islands underwater this morning, poor little things 😱 Heavier currents meant that I swam without moving upstream more than a few meters! Fun times hanging (out) with alder!!!
2023-09-12 16:50:56 +0000 UTC
View Post
Not from today (today I had a few river dips, and a big shower during a massive storm that nearly flooded the house! Luckily I was brushing away the nearly incoming water overflow like there was no tomorrow and nothing came in!) but it's nice to share the visit to the sea a couple of day ago...
Good night!
2023-09-10 20:56:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
Storm woke us up, it was incredible, sky was lit, rain really heavy and loud, water flowing on the street... A delight to sense and capture.
When lightning stopped I went to the river, and swam my usual morning routine. This time I felt like a blind person as I could not see the rocks under the water because of all the sediment that the current was carrying, but I know them so well that I knew where they were. Getting to know the riverbed so well feels so good, very intimate. The water cl...
2023-09-09 20:29:50 +0000 UTC
View Post
This morning's dip was really yummy, even with robin birdsong, and before sun came out.
Last evening I went for a refreshing dip when it was dark and I managed to see a river snake crossing from one shore to the other. It's amazing to discover neighbours and tune in into their rhythms... Every swim is different, there's so much life.
2023-09-07 20:53:46 +0000 UTC
View Post
