My Watermark is Lake Talon, Ontario.

My name is Naomi Sniekus, I’m from Toronto, Ontario.

There’s many different waterbodies that have influenced my life but right now the primary one is Talon Lake. We have this little cottage on Talon Lake, we recently just purchased it. When we first got there it was October and regardless of time of year it was we knew we needed to jump in the water just to sort of baptize us with this beautiful piece of land and the lake that - we haven’t purchased it because you sort of borrow these things - but we’ve come into.

So we swam in October which is crazy, I know everybody on the lake were watching us and going what a bunch of ‘Citidiots’ - we embraced that. We were getting up at 6 o’clock in the morning, even earlier just to canoe on the lake and enjoy the mist rose from the lake, we wept that we got to be part of this.

So come November when we had to take the water out, we’re not good cottagers, we’re sort of figuring out as we go along, my husband and I. We pull the water in and we had to pull the doc in. It was very, very heavy. At one point my husband said I don’t think I’ve got it and I said let me go pull the doc in and at least tie it off. And I turned my back and I heard him say, “I don’t have it”. I turned around and the dock flew out into the middle of the lake. In my mind I’m thinking, it’s going to take me over an hour to go get the canoe and get the dock, so November 30th in my parka and snow pants and boots and toque, I jump into that lake and I go after that dock and swim after it and pull it back. I lose a boot, it’s somewhere in the bottom of Talon Lake. I swim back and my husband is on the shore says since you’re soaking can you swim it around the side where we have to tie it off?

Honestly it was a celebration of that lake and come summer, I’m going in after that boot.