Samson evening

Hello and thank you once again for taking the time to visit my blog - I do appreciate it! I went for a trip to Samson island the other evening with Mel, my Gallery Tresco Assistant from last year and Jodie who's been stepping in to do some blog photos recently. Steve dropped us across in our little boat, Leah Dancer, which was a bit lively to say the least. He let the boat run up onto the beach and we had to hop out between the waves - I almost got stuck with one leg in and one out but the girls held on tight and pulled me onto the sand.

Mel is due to leave the UK this autumn and will return home to New Zealand by the end of the year, but that's not before she and her partner Pete have packed in a bit more travelling in Europe and the Far East too. I do so admire their wanderlust! The evening on Samson was one of several farewell's Mel is having with many friends that she's made over the past two years. We took some beers and snacks and had a good old chinwag for a couple of hours.

And of course, Jodie did a great job of taking some snaps of my outfit of the day! This was my work outfit and one of my favourites from this summer. The dress was a last minute find from New Look when I was in Truro in June. It has a very 70's vibe and feels so lovely and swishy to wear. It has capped sleeves and an elasticated waistband but I love to add a stretch belt as a finishing feature. 

The jacket was a Vinted purchase and is by Forever 21. Orange, orange and more orange was the theme today, but it feels such a joyful outfit to wear.

We missed the best of the evening sunlight and it was also very windy as you can see, but it was still fun trying to capture some atmospheric shots for the blog. My accessories are these pretty shoes by Rocket Dog from TK Maxx - again they have pretty crocheted flowers like the multicoloured ones seen previously. Rings are old and pre-loved, sunglasses are by Radley London and the necklace was from Accessorize last year. 

I'd hoped for a lovely quiet sunny evening for our outing, but island life means you have to be quite resiliant weatherwise so we had cosy layers at the ready for when the sun dropped.

And here we are, all heading home again. Mel on the left and Jodie on the right. It was so good to get off-island and catch up with each others news.

Bye bye Samson! You never know, we might manage another little jaunt together before Mel leaves at the end of the month...

                                                                        Anna x

Off-island

I've had a day off today, filled with lots of household chores, blah, blah, blah, but my reward was a jolly jaunt off-island for a picnic and photo shoot at the end of the day. Steve took me to Samson which was deserted and looking lovely as ever on the high tide.

A day off means dressing down for a change. The jeans are from Next, the top is from H&M but is very old, as are the sandals which are so old that I can't read the brand name on the sole (they came from TReds in Truro many moons ago). The bag was a charity shop find last summer.

Rolled up jeans are just right for jumping on and off the boat. I particularly like these as they're high waisted and seem to hold everything in place better than low rise jeans do on me of late. I seem to be suffering from not just muffin tops, but also there are real signs of that softening around the middle aka the dreaded middle aged spread. 

A strange thing seems to be happening to my figure which I suppose I could put down to the big 60. Much as my weight remains more or less the same, there's a definite slackening of skin tone which is not what I signed up for. I know I'm not fat, but I can gather bits of me up in rolls that I never used to have. Sorry, probably too much information!

The view from up here is fab. Rocks, sea and dazzling sunshine.

It's amazing what a little bit of sunshine does for our mood. Just a couple of days ago we had fog and yesterday it was bitterly cold with a strong north east wind ( I was in winter boots and a polo neck) and yet today it could pass for a summer's day. Hurrah!

The decorations on my sandals are cleverly wired so that no matter how long they're packed away every winter, I can easily tweak them back into shape again. The embroidered butterflies and ornamental flowers don't look a bit out of place in the bed of flowers underfoot.

I've lived on the Isles of Scilly for 40 years and this is the first time I've been right up on the top of Samson. The view is stunning and you can see all of the other islands from here.

And here's my photographer, boatman and picnic companion. Thanks Steve for making this happen!

Anna x