Page 56 - BR September 2023 (1)

September 2023 September 2023

The pool opens 365 days of the year with the summer season starting on the first
Saturday in May and ending on the last Sunday in September. During this period it GARDENING CLUB
opens daily from 7am to 9.30am for a morning swim and then 10am to 6.30pm for
a day swim. There is a further public swim 6.45pm to 8.30pm on Mondays,
Thursdays and Friday. I am exhausted. I have had to cut the grass
again! Last year it was so dry I had nearly three
The Triathlon club use the pool on Tuesdays, water polo takes place on months off having to do this regular chore. No
Wednesdays and the University of London have an early morning session on point cutting the brown shriveled grass and it was growing so slowly. This year it
Saturdays throughout the summer. The lido never closes even on a bad day. seems as soon as its done I have to do it again.
So what did the pool mean to Shane Last June I got a kitten called ‘Malcolm’ and he didn’t know what rain was until
“This lido is one of the most pleasurable September. This year there is more work. Muddy paw prints are everywhere.
places to work. Both my colleagues and
our customers are an absolute delight; On the more positive side we have good crops of
just like a family”. “I always look forward runner beans and plums. I am making runner bean
to going to work”, he added. pickle. Look up the recipe for Delia Smith’s runner
bean pickle lovely with turkey and cold meats at
Not that it is all plain sailing and on a Christmas. I have made the spicy apple chutney
busy day with 2,500 people in the lido, featured in this magazine in July well worth a go.
the lifeguards have had trouble from a
gang from outside the area. They had to Congratulations to me and Adrian Heydon who
deal with 11 rescues on that day. entered Winterborne Kingston Show. Adrian gained a
first with beetroot and second with runner beans. I
won prizes for preserves and won best in show for my
“Would you like to meet the Lily the Pink Flower arrangement. More people should
backbenchers” Shane asked. “I call them have a go. The whole point of a show is to show off.
the lido pests!” he said with affection. He It is hard work getting entries together but if no one
was of course referring to the lido’s regulars bothers there is no show.
who had congregated on the sun terraces
at the shallow end of the pool.
I was first to meet Alexia O’Mara (29) and
her friend Andrew Stone. Alexia was a
serious open water swimmer and swam at
the pool all year round. She had swum
round Jersey in 2012, the channel 2013 and
done a two-way Windemere the following year: impressive! “I love the sense of
community at this pool and the eccentricity. There is something deeply spiritual
about the place and I find it very cleansing” she said. “The lifeguards are
fantastic!” She had just landed a teaching job in Dorchester and we both agreed
to meet in the sea along the Dorset coast sometime soon.

Meanwhile, whilst I had been talking Shane, Diana had been chatting to other Last month we had an outing to Down Farm. Once again the weather was
“backbenchers”. Virginia McFadyen had been regularly swimming at the lido for damp and only a few of us made it. Here we saw the wildflower and conservation
25 years. “Outdoor swimming is about exhilaration and a real mood changer” she pond. The purple scabious was blooming along with birds foot Trefoil. There were
told Diana. ”it is always laid back here and the lifeguards interact well with the many other flowers round the pond including pink loostrife and Bull rushes. Tony
swimmers. Bates was ecstatic and took photographs. Even though we were only a few

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