The joy of friendship

Meet my lovely friends Bo and Dave who recently travelled from Portugal to visit us for a long weekend. That's surely the sign of a great friendship when your mates travel for 24 hours just to see you for three nights. We had a busy few days, eating, drinking and generally making merry and yes, we had a lot of laughs too. 

The weather was cool but bright and calm enough for a boat trip. Bo was keen to visit one of the Eastern Isles so that's what we did. It was dead low water as we chugged across St Martin's flats resulting in our fine boatman having to pull the engine up and use a paddle to punt us across the stretch of water that was at times just inches deep. It all added to the sense of adventure, especially when Steve declared that we might not be able to land on Nornour as the low tide had revealed a lot of rocks. We hatched a back-up plan that we would land instead on the nearby stretch of white sandbar and set up our picnic there if necessary.  

But rocks, seaweed and low tide weren't going to scupper our plans! We skimmed around the sandbar and Steve manoeuvred the boat slowly into the shallows of the Eastern Isles. We encountered lots of seals along the way as we pootled slowly through the long fronds of seaweed, picking our way into the shore. They are hugely inquisitive mammals, but are also quick to duck out of the way in response to a camera being pointed their way.

Hurrah, Nornour was ours!

After a couple of beers to wash down our picnic we climbed to the top of the island to admire the view. The autumn sunshine was dazzling and the company wasn't half bad either.

The views are stunning no matter which direction you look.

The Scillonian steams off into the distance, heading back to Penzance.

Bo's photography tip of the day - get down low to find a new perspective. Yep, that works!

So good to capture these special moments.

Time to go home. 

Here's to friendship!

Anna x

Show time once again!

Hellooooo! How are you? I may be a day or two late, but here they are, the dream team from our most recent exhibition opening night and don't these young ladies look fabulous? From left to right, Tash, Polly and Hannah did a wonderful job as well as sparkling amidst the heat of the evening on Tuesday when we opened the show for Stuart Kettle, Maggie O'Brien and David Thomas (see the paintings in full here). We sold a few pieces on the opening night and sales are continuing fine thank you.

My frock for the evening is an chiffon number (preloved) by LK Bennett which almost broke the bank at £15. Joking apart, it was in immaculate condition and fits like a dream. This lightweight fabric was perfect for the hot summer evening when we were almost becalmed at New Grimsby with not much of a breeze circulating around the building despite doors and skylights being open.

The finer details of the dress can be seen here where the pleating creates a gentle empire line and a deep v neck with a tiny modesty band behind. The lining is polyester which swishes nicely as you move. This cobalt blue isn't a colour I wear a lot of, and certainly not what I would wear in the winter when my Scottish pallor wouldn't be enhanced by this tone at all, but with a light tan I can just about get away with it.

Note this delicious floaty layer of chiffon - I fancy I didn't quite dance around enough to do it  justice however!

Here's a wee twirl for you.

Oh, and I can do this too!

These lime green satin sandals are by Steve Madden from TK Maxx and also cost £15. The kitten heel was a great height to wear after a long day at work, not too high, nor were the straps too snug either. I wish I'd had a some lime green accessories, but I got by as you can see below.

My oversized pearls (from Debenhams) you'll have seen before as well as the green amethyst bracelet which my dear hubby bought me in Morocco. The fab blue rings are charity shopped. I'm wearing my old favourite sunglasses from Quay.

The photo shoot was at the end of the evening when we were confident that things had gone well which I hope shows in our overall relaxed body language. It can be quite a stressful day, preparing the gallery for the evening's party as well as the conversation topic of the day being which outfit we will wear. So far this summer I've managed to choose mine well in advance and even stick to it rather than my usual last minute change of heart. I'm floundering a bit already about the upcoming one in August, so watch this space...

And finally, July on the Isles of Scilly has been nothing less than idyllic in the heatwave. Work days are peppered with end of the day picnics for Steve and I which makes for a welcome bit of downtime for us. We're off to another island tonight, but in the meantime I'll leave you with some picnic shots from the last couple of weeks.

Landing on the high tide at Samson, just a two minute boat trip from home. 

A quick hop from the boat into the little tender to take us ashore.

Picnic over, it's time to capture something for my Instagram feed - I gotta feature this amazing setting, surely! But first, a slight tweak here, a little adjustment there ...

What about placing another pop of colour here? This hat will do nicely!

Swatting a couple of flies away before I can settle down.

And this is it! The shadows created by the evening sun managed to make me look much more tanned than I really am, so no filters required. Tresco island lies in the backgroud with a sprinkling of yachts moored up in the channel.

This time last year I posted a bikini shot and said that I wasn't sure if at 60 I'd still be happy to wear one. Yay, I still am! 

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