After my unusually early exercise today walking the dogs before the heat, I came back ready for my first swim of the day. Before breakfast. 
What a joy, the pond temp was still 20C, the same as last evening, but the shade air temp had dropped from the then 34C to 24C, I loved every minute of the 42 metres and then sat quietly in the chair, without drying off, to watch the ripples of the newts coming up for gulps of air. 
Hi, hope you are well, I’ve organised a bit of a competition in Paris and I’m struggling to find somewhere suitable for the swimming bits in the triathlon. Any chance we could use your pond?
We’ll supply our own towels and snacks.
Best wishes,
Pierre de Coubertin (Jnr)
Yes of course, come one, come all, there is no sewage in my pond. Apart from the rather attractive green hue of the algae and some small contributions from the snakes, the newts, the frogs the toads the boatmen and passing pigeons.
There is only one rule, keep yer gob shut.
A bit of a turnaround this morning. At 8.30 the temp in the pond was 20C and in the surrounding air 17C. It has happened before but not often. I suppose the reason is that the water cools very little overnight whereas a cooler day drops more quickly.
I almost didn’t want to get out and spent quite a few minutes waist deep after my 42 metres sweeping some needles with a hand net, but soon had to climb out because the top half of my body was getting chilly.
If you find the right place you can do it in France as well. I don’t think there is a law against swimming ‘out of season’ in an etang but I dug my own pond specifically for the purpose. There is a limit on size, but it is far more generous than I needed, before a tax of some sort must be paid, whereas I think swimming pools always attract tax.
I have swum all the year round but had sometime out after last December because of my asthma. Now I think it actually helps it as I swim without breathing and thus take regular very large intakes of breath which probably helps my lungs. I am going to try and keep going again this winter, very invigorating.
18C water, 16C air at 8.30 today, so a little cooler than yesterday but the water is still warmer than the air.
@Flavia is that ice on the surface behind you in Denmark? Ice is the one thing that stops me here, not because it is cold but because it is sharp and I can’t risk swimming alone and not realising, because of the anaesthetic effect of the cold, that I am loosing blood from a cut,
Yes, it is ice 
You never go winter bathing alone here, because of risks (for example you can slip from the jetty when it’s icy), and you’re usually in the water for less than two minutes. In, breathe, breathe, breathe, out 
Sometimes with friends we like to compete to see who stays longer, swimming from one side to the other of the jetty. We usually get out, jump a bit, and in again and repeat 2 or 3 times. Going for a fourth time is crazy, the hands and feet hurt too much.
we usually break the ice with a shovel and try to stay away from it. Sometimes we hit ice pieces that are loose and floating around us. It does not hurt, but it is uncomfortable.
Outbloodyrageous, they didn’t tell me they where filming at the time. 
@Flavia There is a lovely film, I think it was called ‘The Lakes’, and it is a documentary about all the people who swim in the ponds (it might have been called that instead) on Hampstead Heath. There is a large community of them who swim every day of the year and there are 2 segregated ponds and once a year, or every so often, the ladies invite the men to join them. There is a lifeguard on duty I believe and people are advised against, but not prevented from, swimming amongst the ice.
I will try to find the documentary 
This is a trailer for it, not sure where to find the film itself at the moment.
Apparently it is on Netflix, which is where I must have seen it, so that means Netflix fr., but it might be on other ones.
I might watch it again soon but a word of warning, some of the ladies when interviewd in their changing rooms, are a tad uninhibited.
Unless it’s been censored since I last saw it, quite right too. 
I watched that and enjoyed it immensely. My BIL and niece took up wild swimming earlier this year in the nearbyThames and a nearby gravel pit.They have to wear big red floats on their backs so they can be seen at all times and are not encouraged to dive straight in but to edge in gradually to take onboard the change in temperature on their bodies. They love it and go at least twice a week.
Yes I know that is the advice of the wild swimming community generally and I follow it but for a different reason. That is because my pond was hewn roughly from solid rock and therefore has unseen rocky projections below the surface I am forced to climb down using natural ‘steps’ while holding onto the heavy walk board across the southern edge.
I understand the reasons for the advice but find the little by little approach less comfortable with half the body in comparatively cold water while the upper half is in normally much warmer air. If I go sea swimming I walk in as quickly as possible and then when about waist deep dive into the base of the first wave that arrives.
We had a very large above ground pool back in Bretagne where it never really got that hot and also by the sea it was always windy and I dreaded getting down the ladder into it little by little as it reminded me of being forced in the training pool back in primary school swimming lessons. The bit from the thigh to the buttocks is the worst.
Disturbed Hissing Sid again this morning as I walked along the board. At least I assumed it was him because I didn’t see the head as he dived and so didn’t see the white taches which are the mark of the harmless Couleuvre. Also, although he dived immediately as usual when he sees me coming, I didn’t see him resurface a few feet away to hurry back the length of the pond to his nest, which also would be usual.
Instead a few moments later I disturbed him again only a couple of feet away as he then dived once more. I searched with my eyes but never saw him again. Could it be not Sid but a Viper, a different kettle of fish. Do they swim in water? I think they do. 
Never mind. I never saw him again but once in up to my waist and acclimatising as recommended for cold water swimming I felt a brief stroking of my thigh, but nothing more serious. I think we are friends.
There are several snakes here. My son had one over a metre long cross his cul-de-sac, go under his gates and under the house and it was never seen again but was, what my old dad would have called a right big bugger. I think there are a couple of venomous ones but not killers unless you have a vry bad heart condition.
I don’t worry about getting bitten, I can’t take a phone with me when swimming, there is no-one else around up there, I’ll take my chances emboldend by the fact that everything else wants to avoid me. 
