Hurrah for picnic time!

Hi there! I don't know about you, but we've not had much of a summer here. On Friday however, we had a scorcher of a day, something I'd been watching on the weather forecasts for days and had primed Steve that if it delivered, then we'd be mad not to get out for a picnic. And so, at 11am we bundled said picnic fare, beach towels and all the other necessary accoutrements and off we went in seach of our spot. 

We ended up landing on this tiny cove on the uninhabited island of Tean, opting for a two person beach in the hope that we'd not have to share our spot. I know it sounds terribly antisocial, but we do like to have private time together in the midst of the busy season. The little beach was perfect and was tucked in out of the wind making it a real sun trap. 

By early afternoon, picnic eaten, bottles of beer now empty and skin suitably crisped, we were ready to head off home, but not before I'd captured the moment for posterity. 

Yes, it's time for the Mermaid coat outing! Once a year I love to bring out my dazzling sequin coat, preferably on the beach, and swish about in a cloud of self delusional beauty and joy. Here's a link to a previous session. I'm not sure when this became a thing, but I do like to have these references to previous picnics in different locations. Here's another one. 

I featured this shot on my Instagram feed (see here) yesterday. It does make me smile to regard myself as an OAP in bikini and sequins - who'd think you'd find those three words in the same sentence? Another year on and my tummy is a bit rounder as are my hips and thighs too as age creeps up on me but I'll not succumb to comparisons with those who might undermine my self confidence. This is me as I am now, full stop.

The rustling sound of the sequins as the coat billows out in the wind is a delight to me - one that feeds my imagination, ramping up the glamour factor to the max. Mock me all you like, but it's a heavenly sensation!

The sun behind me gives the illusion of a deep tan and flawless body so of course I'll keep this one for posterity too. 

What a perfect backdrop for the Mermaid coat! I honestly can't believe my luck - this is my real life, not just a holiday snap. Steve and I talked a lot about how fortunate we are and have been to spend our days on these islands able to work in jobs that we are passionate about and have the ablilty to island hop in our downtime to relax in these beautiful surroundings.

The last shot and it was time to pack up and go. We'd had a glorious day on the beach, enjoying each others company and counting our blessings . Posts like these are so valuable to me to refer back to in the long winter months. A reminder that summer will come again and my Mermaid coat with always have another outing!

                                                                Anna x

Picnic time!

The recent heatwave was all the prompt we needed to scoot off in our boat with some friends for a day on one of the uninhabited islands. We moored up at Tean for the afternoon with Charlie and Anna to enjoy a picnic with a view.

As a picnic spot you couldn't get much better than this. Our friends went off to look at the view from up on the top of the island while Steve and I did a photo shoot of my new swimsuit.

The demure swimsuit came from TK Maxx earlier on this year. I'm afraid I committed the biggest bloggers sin by not keeping the labels attached and therefore can't share the brand name with you. I love the ruched body and this tiny frilled skirt afforded just enough coverage to wear whilst sitting eating together. Our friends love the fact that we picnic in style by bringing our table and chairs to the beach.

We had the island pretty much all to ourselves for the afternoon which is surely the whole point of going off-island. The silence, the view and the company made for a perfect day. As the tide came in across the warm sand the sea offered up lovely warm spots for the swimmers. Well I ought to say swimmer, as it was only Anna who swam (for a whole 30 minutes) as I opted out of getting my sweet new swimsuit wet. A day off included a day off swimming for me, and guess what? The world just kept on spinning!

As I enter my busiest time of the year with our summer exhibitions coming thick and fast I'm aware that I can't be all things to all people and so must make my apologies if the blog gets a bit image heavy and text light over the next couple of months. I love to keep you abreast of my life on the island and therefore can give you this link to the 2018 version of the Tresco Times which just so happens to feature me and my island story on page 80. Click through to the online copy here. And apologies too, to all my dear blogging friends for not visiting your blogs of late. In due course I'll have news of what I've been up to behind the scenes, but for the moment all I can say is that I have an exciting new project in the offing!

Anna x