22 Comments
User's avatar
Judy Johnson's avatar

Not a fan of cold or swimming, but love your reports and could easily covet a dog like Pip. Thanks for taking time to write. Enjoy merrie olde England!

Expand full comment
Elisa C's avatar

Love this! Thanks for the laughs this chilly day in New England, 'cross the Pond... Joyfully imagining those coal-heavy stockings 🙏🏻😂

Expand full comment
Katherine C. James's avatar

"…like a sad but sporty Victorian." 🙂

Expand full comment
Spike Gillespie's avatar

I feel the same allegiance to the Atlantic. Grew up nearby. Best ocean ever. I represented for you today and jumped in Barton Springs. It was, as you know it always is, splendid.

Expand full comment
Elizabeth McCracken's avatar

I am delighted for the representation. Thank you, Spike.

Expand full comment
Spike Gillespie's avatar

This morning I saw the baby goslings!!! So cute.

Expand full comment
Don A in Pennsultucky's avatar

There is nothing quite like a black cocker. The one I grew up with was blonde but the blacks have an elegance that the blondes can't match.

I've been an Atlantic fan since we vacationed on Cape Cod in the mid 1950s when I was little. We patronized a beach on the Nantucket Sound side. I've also been further to the south in Delaware and I took my kids to the bay off Galveston. I did stray when I was in Papua New Guinea where I got my feet into the Pacific but I'm basically Atlantic bound.

In 1970, I got to the other side but didn't get into the ocean because I was on top of it for my "3rd Class Cruise" as a member of the Naval Reserve Officer Corps assigned to a member of Destroyer Squadron Twelve that was conducting exercises in the northern reaches -- above the Arctic Circle. The last leg of the exercise entered the Channel from the North and I flew back to England and the USA from Brest.

Expand full comment
Jennifer Ward Dudley's avatar

I’ve peace. Quiet and if enemies dark coal. We in turn have a Black English Lab named Alvin who’d be deeeelighted to take the chilly plunge alll the way with your nephews. Cheerio. Jenn and Alvin

Expand full comment
Lauren Hough's avatar

Merry Christmas, Elizabeth.

Expand full comment
Elizabeth McCracken's avatar

Merry fucking Christmas, dear Lauren.

Expand full comment
Lauren Hough's avatar

I love you so goddamn much.

Expand full comment
Benjamin Dreyer's avatar

Just lovely. Merry Christmas/Happy Chanukah, Elizabeth!

Expand full comment
Elizabeth McCracken's avatar

Thank you, dear Benjamin, and a very merry everything to you, Sallie, and Robert!

Expand full comment
Caroline Smrstik's avatar

A fellow Atlantic swimmer! The Mediterranean is deeply average, the Adriatic is nice in parts, the Caribbean is a playground, the Indian Ocean is exotic, the Pacific is what it is, but the Atlantic will always have my heart.

Expand full comment
Sarah Bain's avatar

I keep thinking one day there will be a silhouette portrait of you in your bathing gear but now I very much want one with the bathing dress. Enjoy the rest of your holiday season.

Expand full comment
Amanda McTigue's avatar

How much do I love the little swirls and tides of your writing. Thanks for this post.

Expand full comment
Kerry's avatar

I'm sending warm wishes through the thick Boxing Day cloud outside my east Devon home. Yesterday I was at Charmouth beach(famous for its ammonites), watching hundreds of humans lunging towards the sea, some in dinosaur suits, others braving the mismatched two-piece; each embracing longed-for release and the type of self-conscious scream only a Brit can manage. Peace.

Expand full comment
Alexander Chee's avatar

Happy Christmas Elizabeth!

Expand full comment
Alexander Chee's avatar

I deeply regret not swimming while in London last year…

Expand full comment
Elizabeth McCracken's avatar

It has never occurred to me to swim there! I'm very excited and will give a full report. Happy everything!

Expand full comment
Kemmer's avatar

Out of curiosity, have you read Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May? (The audio is excellent, too.) I think you would enjoy much of what she has to say, especially about cold-water swimming.

Have a lovely time away!

Expand full comment
Elizabeth McCracken's avatar

No, but I will find it. Thank you.

Expand full comment