A UK bank holiday today and I wasn’t, in theory, working. However, there was a bit of paperwork I could do at home, so with the children at Granny’s house, I dropped the car back at home and decided to cycle over to work instead, pick up some papers and cycle home.

Oh, did I mention summer has arrived (at last) here in the UK? Temperatures in the mid-20s today and feeling hot (hotter, apparently, than Madrid!)

A bit of a stream runs through the park and so I decided to kick off my shoes and wade in its four inches of water before heading home. Imagine my surprise to find another woman down off the path, sunbathing topless!

Yes, it may be a sight familiar in Paris or Amsterdam, but not in Scotland!

I was tempted to express some solidarity with her, but equally aware of the time, so really I had to finish a quick paddle, cool my feet, and then head off home. But I was thrilled to see that (semi) nudity is now becoming a bit more visible in public parks. Long may it continue.

Ella

OK, so the subject of my sex life has been brought up in comments, again. I’ve deleted the comment, rather than publish it.

Look, people (more specifically, guys), this blog is about my naturist life, not my sex life, or my life as a working mum, or my life as someone who goes for walks through public parks in the dead of winter with four layers of clothing on, OK?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’m a 40 year old Mum to three children, so you can all assume I’ve had sex three times (maybe more). And that’s the very limit of where you should all assume I’m discussing my private and personal life in that regard. OK?

Ella

Sandrine takes advantage of the fact that it is possible to shop in swimwear, topless or fully nude in many naturist resorts, in or out of Second Life Buying in healthy food

One of the simple pleasures of my naturist holidays is that I can roll out of bed, wander down the steps of the apartment and buy fresh bread fro breakfast from the little van that goes around the area. Later in the day, it’s a bit of a walk to the supermarket where naturism is possible inside, and pick up a few provisions for the day ahead.

We like to eat healthily all the time, but on holiday we eat healthily and simply. I don’t do any cooking, and instead we will buy bread, cheese, fresh tomatoes, fresh sardines, drizzle a lot of it in olive oil and try to replicate the Mediterranean diet.

Amaris, our new writer focussing on wider naturist or alternative lifestyles with an emphasis on the likes of diet, exercise and environmentalism, takes up the story as regards healthy eating…

Ella

Hi again from me, Amaris,

Just a few quick and easy and healthy recipes that would really fit well in Ella’s idea of Mediterranean diet, and don’t involve (much) cooking, allowing her to concentrate on her holiday.

First up is mayo-free avocado egg salad.

Quick, simple and nutritious. Apart from boiling a couple of eggs, Ella isn’t going to be spending a lot of time in the kitchen. In fact, she only needs to tell husband Jim to boil the eggs while she works on her tan and it’s really just a case of chopping things up and mixing them together. This is an absolute favourite of mine.

Amaris working on some recipes in her kitchen

Again, very quick, simple, nutritious and delicious.

I’m not sure how popular these types of blog posting these will be, it’s a naturist blog and clearly many visit for the naturism in its quite narrow sense, but for me naturism goes away beyond just taking your clothes off. It embraces healthy eating, taking care of the environment, regular exercise and other elements of life that we’ll embrace if people seem to like the sort of posts I’ll write.

There’s lots of great Mediterranean styled dishes to show you, but I won’t labor the point for now.

Instead I’ll conclude with the photo above, showing a woman managing to combine semi nudity (I imagine padded cycling shorts make very good sense on a thin saddle!) and excercise.

While sitting in my SL kitchen, enjoying my avocado egg salad (on wholemeal bread), it occurred to me that I wasn’t sure if there was anywhere available to do mountain biking (semi nude or otherwise) in Second Life. So I checked.

Yes, there are mountain bike rides in SL. And like the woman in the photo above, I’ve kept my padded cycling shorts on 😉

OK, folks, let’s see how my vision of naturism, more like a casual approach to clothing where it makes sense, grabs some of you! And if you’ve got a few moments, try out one or both of the recipes I’ve offered.

Seeya!

Amaris

Reina Photography have added a couple of free gifts at their inworld store.

The first is called ‘Mother’s Day’, and the second is a couples pose.

Let’s look at the couple pose first…

It comes with a backdrop when you rezz it, but you can lose that and just keep the pose balls.

Cute, eh?

And now the ‘Mother’s Day’ one…

Hmmmm, I shouldn’t feel guilty about portraying children in naturism as they’re a vital part of family naturism and the lifestyle’s future, but somehow I do, even in SL avatar style. For that reason, I’ve pixellated the following photos because there’s a lot of warped people out there.

Ageplay is  rightfully frowned upon in SL, although there’s a lot of ‘petites’ (child sized avatars) out there on the grid. When I get to my RL naturist holiday the kids will be with me, on the beach, as will dozens of other tourist and local families.

Children are an intrinsic part of naturism, and yet we’ve become hostage to a few sick individuals who see them in a specific, nauseating way. It’s a lovely, cute pose and, in the context of this blog, something that should not be dismissed for because of the sick views of a minority. But we are, and there it is.

I’m glad I’ve got the pose and was able to make a photo utilising it, and I assume that there’s a market for those who will like to pose with their ‘petite’ (child sized) avatars in Second Life, otherwise why make the pose at all?

Granted, I guess the pose isn’t made for a naturist market, but remember! My children are growing up, as all children initially do, without any sense of shame about their bodies and will, like generations of naturist children in the past, grow up as rounded individuals. For them, the body is a natural thing, something naturists (and nude-friendly folk who aren’t ‘naturist’ as such…many families do treat nudity at home as entirely normal) understand.

Ella

In 1963 the British establishment was rocked when an affair between its then War Secretary, John Profumo, and Christine Keeler, a nightclub dancer, emerged.

In the moral standards of the time, the affair might have been enough to see Profumo forced to resign in disgrace. What made it worse -for Profumo- was that Keeler had also slept with a Russian naval attache with links to Russian intelligence, Yevgeny Ivanov. In the light of the Cold War paranoia of the times…and possibly some well founded doubts…the idea grew that ‘pillow talk’ between Profumo, Keeler and the Russian might compromise the UK’s national security.

Within a year, Profumo’s Conservative party had been voted out of power in favour of Harold Wilson’s Labour Party, and it’s possible to suggest that ‘the Profumo Affair‘ played a part in that.

The Profumo Affair still has some cultural resonance in the UK, with a 1989 film, ‘Scandal’, dramatising the events (and the Pet Shop Boys having a hit single with the title song), and Andrew Lloyd Webber created musical from the story, ‘Stephen Ward’ (Ward being the man who introduced Keeler to Profumo).

Afterwards, Keeler began what she called her ‘slow descent into obscurity’, but not before sitting for one of the most iconic images of the British 1960s.

…as well as some slightly ‘racier’ (for the time) topless shots.

So iconic is the chair shot that you can buy a version on Second Life’s Marketplace, (L$149).

Abbey, an SL friend who lives her SL in an almost permanent state of a vintage/retro look, has a similar chair. Sadly, she can’t remember where she obtained it, otherwise I’d have pointed you at the seller as well.

But it evokes a certain similarity to Keeler’s shots very well, as well as being a little ‘racier’ than the Keeler original.

Abbey has been doing a bit of posing for us recently. I won’t go as far as to suggest that this is the starting point for another ‘Vintage Season’, but we’ll certainly have a couple of upcoming posts  that reflect on the historical nude in the coming days.

Ella

Beefcake. It’s a term coined for well-toned male models. They needn’t necessarily be nude; it’s possible to be ‘beefcake’ merely by being muscular and shirtless. Even Elvis Presley might qualify as ‘beefcake’ in some of his movies.

But ‘beefcake’ apparently had a whole different dimension in gay culture (see the gallery above), with magazines devoted to nude men in minimal military attire (cap, boots), bodies oiled, or striking ‘classical’ poses, all for consumption by a gay audience. Of course, as later magazines like Playgirl proved, there was also a female audience for such photography, and these ostensibly gay photoshoots would, in the 1940s and 1950s, have had some sort of female readership.

I did one of my wildly unscientific Vox-pops with some friends recently and asked if they had seen such magazines, and was surprised that most, usually in their teenage years, had seen magazines like Playgirl shared around in their peer group, and that all of them could admire the males photographed therein.

In a world where we’re told that women don’t consume porn in the same way as men, it’s still surprising to find that about a third of women watch porn on a weekly basis!

I have to say that I’ve never consumed porn. Of course I’ve found myself exposed to it at various stages of my life, but I’d never think of switching on a computer just to see two people making out, and more. That’s possibly because I’m a naturist, so I’ve been exposed to much, much more magazines, photos and films of the natural naked body.

Naturist or not, almost everyone on the planet is intrigued by the naked body. Porn users, we read, become desensitised through usage, and that real life sexual encounters are made more difficult as a result.

But there’s no getting away from the fact that we’re all intrigued by the naked form, either that of our own or the other gender.

Yes, there’s something beautiful about seeing people being entirely natural on the beach. And removed from the sexual element of the naked form, never desensitising. Away from the naturist beach, there’s still something erotic in two naked bodies. In this respect, our fascination for the nude form would appear to suggest that, in terms of mental health, naturism is a much healthier way to ‘consume’ the naked form than the use of pornography.

Ella

It’s official! The UK’s ‘most hated clothing’ are tight swimming trunks (aka ‘budgie smugglers‘)

Apparently, I also learn, it’s not permitted to wear such swimwear in any pool in France!   

And, do you know, fellas, there’s a solution to being looked on with some disdain by wearing the horrible things…

A quite simple, logical solution, fellas. You know it makes sense.

Ella

I don’t know about you, but for me holidays (naturist or textile) are a time for reading. It can be a bit problematic at certain parts of the trip that others might take for granted. I like to keep the children quiet and amused on the flight, for example, because I think other passengers are entitled to me undertaking some good parenting to ensure they have a pleasant flight. Besides, I don’t buy into this ‘spoilt brat’ form of parenting displayed by some. Children need to learn manners.

However, with young children in tow, the idea of late nights in bars are a thing of the past, so we’ll find ourselves back at our apartment by mid-evening, maybe 9pm after we’ve had dinner, and that’s often the time to break out the Kindle, put on some music and get immersed in a book. And a huge number of people eschew the Kindle, with the dangers of it being swamped by water or sand, in favour of proper, old fashioned books.

This is my favoured mode of reading on holiday, turning pages, although I love my Kindle at home!

Doksie at her beach hut as Su Cash Naturist, books close at hand

Many of us spend time reading on holiday, naturist or textile, and it’s a simple, affordable pleasure to be enjoyed while soaking up the sun and holiday atmosphere.

Ella

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In response to my posting about genital jewellery a few days back, regular commenter Gerald posted a reply, which was maybe lost to many people.

I thought the comment was interesting in that Gerald’s analysis demonstrates clear cultural differences in New Zealand’s approach to jewellery and depilation. Here’s his comment in full…

Genital jewellery isn’t very common in NZ as far as I know. Perhaps more common in the gay community than in general. I can only recall several examples, a large Prince Albert piercing, several women with clitorial rings, and, slightly outside this topic, a penis tattoo. There was a debate five years ago in the Naturist community about rings, etc. There was a strong feeling expressed that those wearing jewellery were not truly naked. I would feel it is up to the individual really just as shaving body hair is treated. One thing about the Prince Albert, though I suppose you are not supposed to pay attention to this kind of detail is that it was actually quite becoming and suited his penis. Interestingly at various hippie events where there is common nudity, such as Kiwiburn, I have yet to see any jewellery being worn by males. Occasionally you will see women with genitial piercings and or shaved.

Markedly different from my UK naturist experience, different again from my experience of naturism in Spain, and different from the likes of the US, I imagine.

Gerald also brings up the issued of a penis tattoo. That’s something I’ve never seen in real life naturism, but have heard of, and of course seen in Second Life.

Royal, a penis we’ve never reviewed because none of my SL male friends seem to own one, do numerous penis tattoos for each of their products, for example.

This got me to thinking about the cultural differences in so many aspects of naturism. In Europe, the culture would be for women to be shaved (in the main) and for their menfolk to expect this to a degree, while the men themselves were, for a long time, resistant to the idea of shaving, although that has changed in recent years.

Tattoos are now so prevalent amongst British people (men and women) that the Germans apparently have a phrase for it – English rash.

Barely a pubic hair between them, and with a number of tattoos displayed

So…what’s the current cultural ‘norm’ where you live regarding genital piercings and shaving (in the context of naturism)?

Ella

I popped online earlier to find my good friend Fabio Lazuli also online, and he immediately reminded me of a real life photo I’d used in my profile a couple of years back, I think, which he liked and had asked for a copy to turn into a portrait.

Here it is…

I think this is stunning!

You can find it on Fabio’s pages at imgur.

We then headed off to another sim, where I posed for Fabio in my SL avatar guise.

Many of Fabio’s excellent photographs can be seen on his Flickr album

With my Spanish holiday now lurching into view at great speed, I’ve promised Fabio I shall now try to get some good (nude) photos taken while on holiday, photos which I shall pass to him to recreate in art form (I won’t, I don’t think, post the original…but you never know 😉 )

I’ll keep you posted on this as the holiday and post-holiday period progresses.

Ella