Moomin underwater swimming

-

Underwater Moomin swimming, the bag purchased from the shop at the Finnish Church in London. The church in Albion Street, Rotherhithe SE16 was originally established for Finnish sailors. If you get down to their annual Christmas fair you might meet a life sized Moomin wandering around.



#Oursea - Moomins raising funds for the John Nurminen Foundation to help protect the Baltic Sea



 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sylvia Plath swimming

-
Image
The poet Sylvia Plath (October 27 1932 – February 11 1963) was a keen swimmer, and her writings make many references to being in the water. For instance a 1947 letter to her mother mentions a long cycle ride to a beach where 'The waters were a light, salty blue and a sandy, smooth bar stretched out into the ocean. The water was free from crabs and seaweed, and I went swimming with Sally… We had loads of fun swimming underwater and sitting on the smooth sandy bottom pretending to comb our hair'.  Plath was staying at the time in a summer sailing camp at Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard. Going to Smith College in Massachusetts gave her plenty of time to spend at the beaches on Cape Cod. A 1951 letter describes a restless night-time swim:  'I looked at the angry grey ocean, darkening in late twilight. So I put on my bathing suit and ran barefoot down to the beach. It is a queer sensation to swim at night, but it was very warm after the rain. So I splashed and kicked and the f
Read more

Swim reads: 'before I start to sink' (Deborah Levy)

-
Image
  'My mother taught me how to swim... In old age my mother had found a swimming technique to ‘totally give herself to the water’. This involved floating on her back, ‘emptying her thoughts’ and ‘surrendering to the flow’. She showed me her trick in the murky swimming ponds on Hampstead Heath, floating Ophelia style with the ducks and weed and leaves. I still try to do her trick, but I can only float for ten seconds before I start to sink. Likewise, when I turn my mind to my mother's death, I can only do so for 10 seconds before I start to sink’ (Deborah Levy, The Cost of Living, 2018)
Read more

Swims on Screen: The Midnight Swim (2014)

-
Image
The Midnight Swim, directed by Sarah Adina Smith, is the beautifully shot story of three sisters returned home in the wake of their mother's death.  Their family home is on the shore of the 'Spirit Lake', which their mother had campaigned for as a conservationist and dived in as a scientist and scuba diver - and where she has disappeared presumed drowned.  Much of the story unfolds in and around the lake, including a pleasingly spooky/witchy undercurrent based on folklore about seven drowned sisters and the spirit of one of them calling swimmers to danger and death. It is certainly not a horror film though, so much as a well observed tale of family dynamics and bereavement set against the background of what is apparently West Lake Okoboji in the Iowa Great Lakes. The mother was also something of a mystic, singing nursery rhymes about 'lake fairies' and reciting lines from Wordsworth to illustrate her beliefs in reincarnation: 'Our Souls have sight of that immort
Read more