It is the Summer Solstice, the day with the most hours of sunlight in the year (in the Northern Hemisphere), and the very first day of summer. Bring on the sun, the heat, the bbqs, the parades, the camping trips, the ants, the snakes, the scraped knees and the burnt skin – and don’t forget the swimming!

To get us all in the mood, here’s the great Loudon Wainwright III, with “The Swimming Song.”

Here’s the lyrics, if you feel like swimming along:

This summer I went swimming,
This summer I might have drowned
But I held my breath and I kicked my feet
And I moved my arms around, I moved my arms around.

This summer I swam in the ocean,
And I swam in a swimming pool,
Salt my wounds, chlorine my eyes,
I’m a self-destructive fool, a self-destructive fool.

This summer I swam in a public place
And a reservoir, to boot,
At the latter I was informal,
At the former I wore my suit, I wore my swimming suit.

This summer I did the backstroke
And you know that’s not all
I did the breast stroke and the butterfly
And the old Australian crawl, the old Australian crawl.

This summer I did swan dives
And jackknifes for you all
And once when you weren’t looking
I did a cannonball, I did a cannonball.

Happy summer, everyone. Enjoy.