Winter woollies

I know there are parts of the UK which are being hammered by sleet and snow currently, but thank goodness we in the far southwest are not. Still, we do have a bitter north wind blowing across the islands and I'm taking cover with my favourite woollen coat. 










The coat was a holiday purchase when Steve and I were on our cruise last February see here. The colours pack a punch and it's a real lift on the dark days of winter. Like lots of people I suffer from the winter blues and tend to drift into wearing gloomy shades of grey and black in the winter, so this coat is a brilliant antidote to the blahs. My handbag is a brand new addition, a great find in a charity shop in Penzance. It's ostrich hide, but best of all, it's a perfect match for the bright pink tone in my coat. I've been on the lookout for a stylish bag to take away when I go to the mainland in this fine coat and I found this bag in the very first charity shop on arriving in Cornwall in December. The bonus feature is that the bag is dual purpose acting as both a conventional handbag and a neat backpack. It's great to have a classy bag that I can pop on my back for hands-free shopping.

My other new purchase worth mentioning has to be these glitter boots. I can take no claim in finding these, as I stole the idea from my utterly sleek, style icon of a niece, Kate. We all spent some time together over Christmas and the first time she turned up wearing these wonderful boots I knew I had to have a pair too. By the time I came to buy them, they were in the sale at Topshop see here which was double the joy for me. I don't plan to pack them away until next Christmas. No, I'll be wearing them as and when I think the outfit warrants. You can wear a sprinkling of glitter any time of year in my book!

The rest of my outfit comprises - cashmere polo neck: M&S (charity shopped), trousers: HM, rings: gifts.

Linking with -
Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb 
Cherie of Style Nudge


I'll leave you with this shot taken from my office window looking across the bay to Bryher. There was a momentary break in the cloud to give a glimpse of the sun setting and a tantalising peek at the blue sky before the next dark clouds obscured the view. The resulting heavy rain over us may well have fallen as snow on mainland Cornwall.
Anna x

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Fur - fake or real?

It's mid-winter and here in the Northern hemisphere fur coats are big business. It's too sweeping a statement to say most women own something fur, but the magazines would lead us to believe that's the case. Personally, I own a few fur pieces, both real and fake, but when you add fur trims on jackets, gloves, fur lined boots, scarves and pom-poms, then it amounts to a fair bit. 







Outfit details - trousers: H&M, boots: Office, fur coat: vintage, rings: charity shopped.

A few years ago my husband and I were fortunate enough to go on holiday to Venice. It was early February and the temperature had dropped to minus 9 degrees making headline news as it was cold enough for the Grand Canal to start to freeze over which hadn't happened in almost 100 years. I'd packed a duvet coat and fleecy hat to keep me warm, but they didn't. European women wear real fur when it's cold. They have no qualms about that. Given the severity of the weather, I soon came to understand why. Nothing man-made can keep you warm in these kinds of temperatures, or at least not without making you look like the Michelin man from head to toe. The bitter, icy wind blew across the canals causing chills in every nook and cranny. One of our walks took us along a tiny canal where I came across a vintage boutique. In the window was this beautiful red fox fur coat. The jacket is second hand, an important point for me, and it wasn't long before I had succumbed to its charms. I wore it for the rest of the holiday, warm, toasty warm in fact, and feeling as glamorous as I ever have.

Fast forward to last autumn when I bought this fake fur jacket. Its ombre tones called to me when I was rooting about one of the charity shops in Truro.


As consumers I'm sure we all like to understand the impact our purchases have on the environment and it's for that reason that I'm a huge advocate of thrift/charity shopping wherever and whenever I can. Previously I might have admitted to feeling a bit uncomfortable about owning a real fox fur jacket, but strangely not in the least bit awkward about wearing suede boots or pony skin shoes or carrying an ostrich hide handbag, and I fancy I'm not the only one who suffers from this odd kind of logic. Fake fur obviously carried none of the guilt that real fur might. My viewpoint has recently been changed thanks to new information. 

At the end of October I read an article in the Daily Mail by Zoe Brennan titled "The faux fur timebomb". She cites various facts, such as the ten barrels of oil it takes to make a fake fur coat, and that non-renewable plastics are used to make fake fur, and that when washed they in turn release an average of 1900 tiny particles of plastic that end up in our seas. This comes in the wake of the microbead scandal that hit the news in 2016 alerting us to the fact that our face washes and scrubs contained these ocean polluting beads of plastic. These microbeads are now being found in some sea creatures, one step away from entering the food chain. Ms Brennan's most revealing fact is that when you and I throw out our fake fur coats, they will end up alongside all other plastic waste in a landfill side and that it will take our coats 1000 years to biodegrade. Shocking isn't it? I had no idea, did you? Real fur on the other hand biodegrades naturally within 6 months. (I realise we're mixing ethics with environmental issues here and that's complex.)

The anti-fur lobby have omitted to tell us these facts. We may not want to buy mink as a result of what we've learnt about mink farms, but equally we surely don't want to have a massive carbon footprint thanks to this throw-away fashion. Another worrying fact is that the production of fake fur uses enormous amounts of energy and produces greenhouse gasses, ionising radiation and noxious chemical by-products, many of which cause cancer. Buy fur responsibly maybe ought to be the message here.

I write this for the same reason I write everything in my blog: to share my story. This is not a call to arms, a request to boycott or indeed an article intended to make us all feel bad. Remember, I'm in no position to judge. I'm sorry that this doesn't make for comfortable reading. But turning a blind eye to anything that challenges our comfort zone isn't protecting the future of our planet. Fun fur will not be much fun for our descendants to deal with. I now wear both my real and fake fur with a genuine awareness of their implications. I said my viewpoint has changed, and here's how - I now prefer the honesty of wearing my real fox fur coat. If someone wants to knock me for that, then fine. And much as I will continue to wear my fake fur, I'm no longer deluded that it's the better thing to do.

I'll finish with a quote from Orsola de Castro, of Fashion Revolution, a campaign for ethics in the fashion industry. She states "The use of real fur (in fashion) is, of course, deplorable, but faux fur is not the answer. It comes with an incredibly heavy carbon footprint, it doesn't biodegrade and the cheap examples are often produced in unregulated factories, with all the concerns that brings over sweatshop conditions, poor pay and child labour." She urges us to "Look for alternative textures, such as luxurious knits. Most people simply don't realise how bad faux fur is. They think of it as a "good" moral alternative to real fur, without realising the damage it is doing."


Linking with 
Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb
Cherie of Style Nudge

Anna x

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Throwback to summer

It may be January outside, but in blogland it can be any month I choose and today I pick 6 months ago when the sun shone and we were revelling in the glory of summer. My daughter Sasha had come home for a long weekend and we had lunch out, followed by a walk to the Abbey Garden. 


This view from the Ruin Beach Cafe is one of my favourites on the whole island. When I first arrived here (some 38 years ago) for a summer season, I worked at the Island Hotel which was situated just behind this building. I was employed as a chambermaid in those days, and spent far too much time gawping at the views from every bedroom window - I truly thought I'd died and gone to heaven! The jetty to the right is where I met the young royals last autumn see here. Beyond that is a tiny row of cottages where my husband grew up and on the top of the hill is The Old Blockhouse castle - read about its history here. The view across the bay takes in St Martin's on the left and beckoning in the distance directly ahead are the Eastern Isles, an outcrop of uninhabited islands that are the perfect escape for for a day out with a picnic and swimsuit.


Sasha loves coming home to wind down and let the island work its magic. 










A day off work in the summertime means chilling in something comfortable which these casual trousers certainly are. I found them in a charity shop in New Zealand a couple of years ago. The handbag is also from New Zealand, a gift from my friend Suzie who used to live here but has moved to that much larger (South) island now. The sandals are old, the tee shirt was from a charity shop last summer and the sunglasses are by Quay Australia. My jewellery is an assortment of gifts and thrifted pieces and my rose gold Darci watch is by Michael Kors.









The Abbey Garden draws thousands of visitors to the island every year and this small montage gives you a taster of what's on offer. Gardener Emma is in charge of all of the floral displays within the Abbey itself. I love this photo. It shows not just the idyllic surroundings, but captures a natural, joyful moment in time. For more details about my island home, holiday offers and where to stay click here

Anna x

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Happy New Year!

Hello and welcome to 2017. I hope you're not too groggy after a big night of celebrating, and if you are, may I suggest dark glasses, a mega dose of vitamin C, lots of fluids and a nap as soon as possible. A week away from the blog, and to a lesser degree from social media too, has done me the power of good. The pressures of delivering the perfect Christmas are challenging enough without dipping into the internet to see how amazingly well others are pulling it off. Much as I love the imagery of instagram, it's so easy to get dragged into the slipstream of others who are zipping along in a cloud of marvellousness. Our 2016 Christmas will be remembered for being the one where the oven element blew half-way through cooking our post Christmas gammon resulting in a comedic dash to my son's house, oven gloves clasping hot roasting tin in yards of foil along with steaming jacket spuds, all compounded by the cover of darkness while my husband masterminded proceedings wearing his brand new head torch. (No street lights here on this tiny island.) None of this was like the adverts featuring the perfect Christmas scenario from Iceland, M&S or Lidl!










And so on to the outfit of the day. Yes, it's totally rock chick with no apologies. Well I say no apologies, but I will admit to one final sneaking in of these glitter trainers which had a lot of you voicing your opinions in 2016 and not necessarily in their favour. See those previous posts herehere and here. However, I really, really think this may be their finest hour. Call me biased, but the liberal dose of leather, lurex and studding all seem to enhance these sweet little trainers in their best styling yet. I've ramped up the glitter factor with this fabulous lurex top which is by Versace, found in a charity shop for £4.99 no less! The studded Michael Kors jacket doesn't get out much and is the ideal finishing touch for this look today. So here's wishing you a very peaceful and happy New Year and do enjoy the last few days of the holiday!

Outfit details - trainers: B3D (TK Maxx), trousers: H&M, jacket: Michael Kors, top: Versace, sunglasses: Quay Australia, rings: charity shopped.

Linking with
Catherine of Not Dressed as Lamb



Anna x

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