Curate contemplations

I have (so far) followed through on my commitment to swim daily in the river and let each swim provoke a few lines of 'tweetable' poetry. Here are the results of the last 2 days: 11 July  A swan with cygnets hissed, I gave space, ‘You bring your unnatural ways,’ it said, ‘Now we eat your bread, But leave the children of this place.’ 12 July A mistimed dive meant I got a nose-full, All the green and rock and root the river had rubbed against Dripped sweet on to my tongue. Follow @JemimaCThackray

I’ve just read Al Alvarez's book Pondlife: A Swimmer's Journal in which he chronicles his daily dips in Hampstead Heath ponds . As a poet and critic, he draws many parallels between his beloved pond water and many great literary themes – birth, life, death, nature – referencing several writers along the way. For example, preoccupied as he is with his own ageing and ailing health, Alvarez cites John Cheever’s short story, ‘The Swimmer’, in which the protagonist grows old in the space of just one afternoon’s swimming – ‘the animal delight of youth running out… seeping away…’. (Another really wonderful book to read if you love both swimming and literature is Haunts of the Black Masseur: The Swimmer as Hero by Charles Sprawson.) Alvarez’s swimming diary has inspired me to keep one of my own for a week or so, except I’m going to write short poems instead – ‘tweet-sized’ poems to be exact, a few lines each day that can be fitted into the 140 characters allowed by Twitter. Alth

It's wonderful to announce the official launch of Winchester Mums' Chaplaincy, a brand new service which aims to support the hard-working mums of Winchester, Hampshire, by providing a free, confidential and impartial listening ear. When I had my first child last year I realised just how little emotional support there is out there for women beginning the journey into sleepless nights and toddler tantrums! There is lots of information, lots of websites and lots of marketing, but not much real help or authentic community. The NHS health visitors do a great job of monitoring children's health and identifying and supporting mums with post-natal depression, but there's a whole range of difficult emotions that mums can experience without actually having PND. This is where Winchester Mums' Chaplaincy comes in - its aim being to support mums who are facing parenting challenges, who may want to talk through a decision, or who just need to off-load about the trials of mo