At the lake

Our lake is warming up. It's still not really warm, but the air is hot enough that it almost doesn't matter. One of the great things about a huge deep lake like ours, a lake in the middle of some rural, tucked-away mountains, fed by glaciers and mountain springs, surrounded by an undeveloped foreshore, is that you can stick your face in it and know that you aren't going to get sick. In fact you can actually drink our lake. Not that this is what Fiona is doing -- she's got swim goggles on and is searching amongst the pebbles for 'special rocks' to save.

This week, during an hour-long stint at the hotel pool in Calgary, Fiona learned to swim. She's convinced she's growing up, and is striving to make it so. She's trying to finish her current math level, working hard to finish her current book on violin, honing her sight-reading skills in preparation for joining in the community orchestra next year, wiggling her almost-loose teeth whenever she thinks of it, and has recently become the proud owner of an iPod Nano, purchased with almost two years' worth of allowance savings. And she decided to learn to dunk her head and swim underwater this week, something she accomplished with courage and determination and lots of giggling. By the end of the hour she was popping her head up to grab a breath too.

But the lake was still too cold today for underwater swimming practice. She managed one split-second dunk but that was it, and more than the rest of us accomplished. Another week and I predict we'll be at it properly.