Monday Morning

First day of changing from full time to part time employment and it has corresponded with amazingly beautiful weather, after nearly two months of chilly wind and rain. So, this morning after a sweaty Keep Fit, instead of skedaddaling up the pass to work, I walked down to the Lake  with the ladies who generally swim afterwards.
We changed in a tunnel of green leaf shadow and tree trunks by the water's edge and then waded out into a warm wrap of haze and sunshine. around our shoulders and the cool swirl of water around our calves. Stretching up to the far fells' feet the surface lay still and reflective. As we slipped in, it parted like cool linen sheets sliding past our arms and legs stately and solemn, with no hint of splash or bubbles. Along the narrow shore D's pretty greyhound quietly picked her way around the tapestry of ferns and rocks, keeping pace with us. A unicorn wading out to drink would not have seemed strange. It was a place between worlds that we had swum into; not necessarily easy and requiring its own exertion, but different entirely from the concentrated core exercises back at the Hall and from our future engagements with the rest of the day's planned itinerary.
Half an hour's immersion was enough though, even with a temperature of 14C, and a little chilled we dried and dressed again, finishing with hot coffee in yellow cups shared from D's flask.