May 27, 2021

HEALTH AND FITNESS — JUST WHAT COVID DOCTOR ORDERED

GRAVENHURST — Call it doctor’s orders.

If outdoors is essential to your health and well-being — as provincial pandemic experts preach — then sunny rays aren’t wasted days, but the perfect antidote for seasonal affective disorders brought on by COVID.

Or as your mom used to say: “Get outside and play — you’ve been inside too long.”

And by that this year she meant all winter.

That’s how it felt today after a “brutal” winter, said Dave Tile as he was put to the test on the tennis courts in Gravenhurst by his ably agile dad, Stephen, who kept the score competitive among the cottagers.

Others, like Anne McCarthy, were “feeling pretty positive” about getting out after COVID.

The former Gravenhurst resident, who sold her place on Muldrew Lake last fall and moved to a condo in Barrie, couldn’t wait to get back to town to try out her new inflatable kayak on Gull Lake.

She just got her second vaccine yesterday and was raring to get out and brave the windy waves.

For mom Jill Krywulak, of Hamilton, it was one last chance to enjoy a day at Gull Lake Rotary Park with her daughter, six-year-old Jordan, before school may soon resume.

Not that she’s complaining about that, she laughed and smiled.

Meanwhile, Josianne Masseau, of Bracebridge, enjoyed a quiet sandwich overlooking the beach.

That’s where Trish MacDonald, of Barrie, and her eight-month-old short-haired pointer Scout were excited to see a flock of Canada geese and their goslings splashing and swimming in the lake.

Tomorrow’s weather prescription calls for more of the same.