Tonight, Fab Free HQ closes its doors, and with it a chapter in the history of Second Life.

I don’t know about you, but it has played a vital, integral, important role in my own Second Life and it will be sadly missed. The gifts, the cart sales, the friends made there, the assistance offered in my early Second Days.

I’ve never gone nude there before out of respect to their ‘no naughty bits’ policy but tonight…why not? Why not capture a few memories, and capture them in a style that reflected our values at SL Naturist.

Thanks, everyone involved at Fab Free, for all you’ve done for all of us over years. You will be missed by the Second Life community in general. ‘The Wash’ was one of the go-to places on a regular basis, the Fab Free blog (which thankfully continues) a daily go-to place.

Fab Free is Dead, Long Live Fab Free.

Trine

Check out our Tumblr page. Throughout the day farm girl Jessie has been dreaming of going to the Hallowe’en Ball. Caterpillar to butterfly? Ugly duckling to swan?

Will she meet her Prince Charming?

Have a great Hallowe’en, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing.

Abi & I won’t be posting on the blog until Sunday, as we’re busy assembling the Issuu magazine dedicated to the Eden Naturopolis estate. I hope to have that published on Sunday.

Trine

While I’ve expressed the idea that I’m a bit non-plussed by Hallowe’en, I’m much more enthusiastic about autumn. When I was at school my friends and I had to walk home through a local park, and at this time of year the groundsmen would have swept piles of leaves together to be removed. Of course we’d come along, throw them at each other, kick our way through piles of leaves and create mayhem. It wasn’t us being bad. It was more that it seemed like a fun thing to do, to have fights with leaves. I feel bad about it now. All those guys who’d worked all day for us to undo their work in a few minutes.

Label Motion has a leaves pose out (Subscriber gift, L$0)

You can tell from my expression that I’m fully aware I’m being naughty 🙂

Kicking piles of leaves, even as an adult, is an enormous amount of fun.

Trine

I hope Brenda, who offered office space to Ella at Eden Naturopolis, doesn’t mind us moving into that SL Naturist office. As you can seen, the desk’s already full of correspondence and plans. Now that I’m beginning to establish a SL Naturist routine, I can now turn my attentions to how to move forward with it. I’m still discovering bits of it day by day, including previous publications via the online magazine publishing house, Issuu.

This facility seems underused. That’s not a criticism of our predecessors by the way. The number of posts they created seems like the main blog kept them busy. But having discovered Issuu, I would be planning to try to use it some more, and plans are already underway to add to our collection of titles, with the seventh publication making an appearance before Christmas. Well before Christmas, ideally, before the SL world is overtaken by wintry scenes.

It’s not coincidental that my plans to utilise the Issuu service are accompanied here by a photograph of the SL Naturist office. I think it’s fair to say that in terms of size and scope, Eden Naturopolis is the prime naturist sim in Second Life and I’d like to dedicate a full Issuu publication to Eden and attempt to convey the full breadth of the place. Not only will I be covering much of the facilities at Eden, but also its associated semi standalone sims. By that I mean Blue Lagoon, Naked Dreams, Bumrose, and anywhere else I come across in the meantime.

I’ve also moved out of my previous apartment (which wasn’t on a naturist sim, incidentally) and into Howie’s apartment on the Eden estate, at Eden Eagle. Abigail’s current apartment rental expires next week so she, too, will be living there from now on. As we’ve been granted rezz rights I think we’ll try and get a desk and a computer set up there as well 🙂

What I do intend to do is to try and make a regular presence at the Eden lighthouse office, probably some time over weekends, in future. Not this weekend and perhaps not this year, but certainly by the beginning of 2016 my plan would be to be at the lighthouse office for a specific period on a specific day (real life permitting) every week so that people can stop by and say hello if they wish to do so.

Trine

I saw this on a site purporting to be ‘naturist’ and felt it was very disrespectful. The couple in the photo are probably over 70, in love and have enough life about them to be confidently naturist. Naturism isn’t just about being young. In fact we all probably hope to live to that couple’s age and have enough health and vitality about us to be enjoying naturism.

Bloggers and websites need to grasp this. It’s offensive that they should be posting drivel like this on a naturist site. They should know better. Shame on them!

Abigail

While the Second Life blogs continue to be awash with Hallowe’en stuff, I’m a bit ‘meh!’ about the holiday, particularly in a Second Life context as it often seems that it’s a case of ‘any outfit you like, in any colour that’s orange and black’. I am underwhelmed.

What I do like about Second Life at this time of year is when sim builders cast their sims in autumnal colours. I’m lucky enough to live quite close to the sea, accessible through a lane through a sizeable wood, so there’s the chance to indulge in a lovely walk at any time of year, but particularly in autumn, to then walk a beach. I took the dog for a walk yesterday and that’s precisely what I did, tramping through dry, crunchy leaves to emerge onto a beach only populated by other dog walkers.

Just like the Second Life photo (above) I took off my boots and socks to paddle in the water (yes, it was cold 🙂 ) and made the error of not bringing a towel with me. The dog usually gets towelled off when I get him home. So it was a rather damp-socked walk back home. Nevertheless it was a wonderful walk, the chance to clear my head of the previous week’s rubbish and simply enjoy nature. It’s no less enjoyable to experience nature in Second Life, as these photos from the Vivaldi sim demonstrate.

Fungi growing on a fallen tree at the Vivaldi sim

I’m pretty sure the Vivaldi sim is seasonally divided into spring, summer, autumn and winter. A review of it on Bitacora Viajera blog would suggest it is (and is where I learned of its existence). I don’t know, as I simply headed off in the direction of the autumnal colours.

The Vivaldi sim isn’t ‘naturist’ as such. Of course, there were no signs up that said it wasn’t naturist 😉

Of course I stripped and have slipped in a couple of naturist photos, as the nude in nature seems ‘right’ to me, but I don’t labour the point on sims where the owners might not like naked avatars wandering over their land. Which brings me to what I’m seeing as a ‘hot topic’ for SL Naturist, that of ‘nude access’ and general attitudes to nudity within Second Life itself and its associated network of blogs. That’s a topic I hope to cover in due course.

Trine

Wild, or Secret, Swimming is something this blog has written about on several occasions, in August, in February, and in August 2012.

It’s not something that I was aware of, other than reading through previous blog posts on SL Naturist, until last week, when I heard a thing on the radio about it, with ‘elderly’ nude swimmers upsetting an angler because they had frightened off the fish, not because of any offence caused due to their nudity. (Please note the ‘Listen Again’ feature to that radio link may only be available in the UK, and that link may only last for a month or so).

I was intrigued and have been doing a bit of research into it.

Ella previously mentioned that even before she ran the blog, she’d seek out ‘wild swimming’ locations in Second Life which seemed like a fantastic idea, one I could try. The more I read about wild swimming in real life, the more it seemed to have at least some associations with nude swimming too.

So let’s explore.

My first stop was at the wonderful, magnetic Naked Dreams sim. During a previous visit I’d noticed the ‘free scuba gear’ at the embarkation point for the underwater swim, so I went back and picked up the free kit. It also comes with face mask, flippers and scuba tanks, but as this post is for wild swimming, which may include very cold water, I dispensed with those and just limited my look to the wet suit.

I know that it’s an odd choice for a naturist blog, but we’re now in the northern hemisphere’s autumn and any water we’re entering is going to be rather chilly, hence the decision to model a free wet suit.

Some wild swimming rules first, in case you’re going to indulge yourself in real life.

DO –

• always be polite to other water users and landowners.
• swim with somebody else – this is particularly important in cold water (officially, UK water is cold year-round).  They could be in the water with you or on shore.  This keeps you safe and makes the swim more fun.
• wear a wet-suit when the water is cold, and get into the water slowly to allow your body to acclimatise.
• Until you are used to swimming outside, and understand your body’s “getting too cold” signals, don’t stray too far from shore.
• Keep cuts and grazes covered up.
• Report any obvious signs of pollution to the Environment Agency (and Surfers Against Sewage for coastal areas)
• wear a bright coloured hat so that other swimmers and boats etc can see you – a tow float can also be useful where there is a lot of boat traffic.
• Build up your swimming ability, the better you are at swimming indoors, the better you’ll be able to manage outdoors where the conditions are very different.

DON’T –

• trespass to get to the water.  Use public footpaths or other rights of way
• stay in too long.  All UK water is classed as “cold” year-round – staying in too long increases your danger of cold incapacitation (you can no longer swim effectively, and may struggle to climb out of the water at the bank).
• Get in to water that looks murky and unappealing or smells funny.
• Swim in privately owned reservoirs unless it’s clear that it is allowed
• swim under the influence of drugs or alcohol – EVER. (these rules copied and pasted from the Ink Spots and Grass Stains blog).

As you can see, wild swimming can be, and is, sometimes undertaken nude or semi-nude. That’s clearly part of the appeal, that the swimming is both wild and free. But first and foremost, remember the rules outlined regarding cold water. The important point is to stay safe. That just doesn’t apply to hidden underwater hazards, but to the dangers of hypothermia. This (and I speak as a total novice) might possibly present a greater danger than underwater hazards to many people.

OK…so where to swim? The idea is that you might go out and search for your own ‘secret swimming’ location, but I’ll begin by demonstrating what can be undertaken at Loch Noble, a sim I sourced via Bitacora Viajera. So it’s a loch, which makes it Scottish, which makes it blooming cold water, so I’ll keep the wetsuit on, thanks.

If anyone can find their own ‘secret swimming’ location in more tropical Second Life waters, please let me know where. Or send photos we can share with the readers.

By attaching a ‘swimmie’ attachment it is possible to swim in many bodies of Second Life water, and there are thousands to choose from. The trick is to find a particularly photogenic spot in which to have your own ‘secret swimming’ adventure.

I think that I’m going to add a ‘Secret Swimming’ page to the blog so that people can do reports and photos from their own secret spots. I’m sure we can find some where a spot of discreet skinny dipping, even on a PG sim, is possible.

Trine

Kustom 9 is on as usual, and it’s an event that was part of my regular Second Life calendar long before I got this gig.

At the moment, you can pick up a pose called ‘Got your back’ from the Luxe stall, (L$9) although we’ve reinvented this as ‘Oiling his back’ for SL Naturist purposes.

There’s a lot of other gifts available at the event. Strictly speaking L$9 isn’t a ‘gift’, but it might as well be. Nothing else this month struck me as being something that could be utilised in a naturist setting but you’ll find a range of different clothes, tattoos and other ‘gifts’ over at Kustom 9 all that the low, low price of L$9.

Abigail

No sooner had I had a little moan about older lady avatars being impossible to find than our roving photographer returned from LAQ sporting a new skin, a L$0 group gift, but also some demos of face tattoos to age the face.

From top to bottom there’s 50, 75 and 100% ageing. There’s also a 25% ageing which didn’t, to our eyes, make an enormous difference to the model’s face.  All of the above are in the ‘Hillevi’ range.

Below is a skin called ‘Gun’, and this one has got me really excited!

This looks like a tremendously successful ‘foxy yet fit forty or fifty’ something about it.

The Gun skin is relatively expensive at L$990 but I’m seriously, seriously tempted.

Trine