How was your month for Free Range Naturism?

[jbeegoode]

Well, two days to go in August 2024 and we have no plans to go anywhere nude, so this is the August report. I've have been a homebody, this month.  There is plenty to do around the houses, with monsoon weeds and gardening and reading/writing and projects. Can't say I've had any clothing on at all at home this month and I only went out a few times for food and supplies, dentist, grand-kids and a couple of dancing and social events. I did a water fast week, while DF was at a woo woo Convention and don't drive during those as I can get kinda spacey and not be aware of it. She however has been pretty busy and about town.

We did host 5 sweats here, attended a Skinny Dip Day party one day and carnuded out to Terra Sante for a nude sweat and meditation.

The weather has been tough, thunder/lightning storms, excessive afternoon heat, which curbs activity somewhat. We carnuded out to Redington Pass with a friend. That was cut short, when a dark grey cloud popped over the mountains and it started to pour. With the danger of deadly flash-flooding, we walked out, staying nude. We bumped into a couple of friends from Terra Sante who wanted to be there for a flash flood. By the time we got back to the road, it was still pouring warm rain. It was a "screw it" situation, so we just decided to keep naked, as we walked up the road to the cars, sitting in the new parking lot. Someone drove by, but it would be silly to just cover up, get sopping wet and walk another few hundred feet to undress and dry off. It was a "watershed" first for our friend who said that she could mark it off her bucket list, if it was on there. She never had conceived hiking so far in the rain and down a public road, nude.

Maybe, I haven't been as much a homebody as I have been feeling...blue moon?

There was some surprise first time happenings at the women's sweat. I'm generally resigned to hold up like a leper inside the house, while they do their "the girls" stuff. Some were early to arrive and treated our mutual nudity as a casual usual, even one that usually covers up. It somehow made me feel better about my banishment, for my gender. We gave away some peppermint cuttings. One person who I'd have never expected to participate in the sweat, knocked on my door and walked in nude to get a wet bag for her cuttings. It does my heart good to see people getting "it."

September kicks off with Labor Day, a sweat Sunday, a clothing optional pool party Monday and then DF has us house-sitting for a quiet week's retreat on acreage with a swimming pool and jacuzzi. There is some nude hiking out there to be done. We have blocked off up to a week to campout this month, after that.
Jbee

[Davie]

August has been a good month and it's not over yet. Five walks  this month. Two were group walks and the rest solo all being mainly naturist. I've done just under 40 miles
 As s bonus I've picked blackberries and sloes. I made blackberry gin and the sloes are in the freezer prior to making sloe gin. Drinking it will be a happy memory of summer.

Saturday will bring a naturist garden visit followed by a naturist swim.

Davie

[jbeegoode]

Good show, eight and ten mile walks nearly every week seems extensive. I can see ten miles here. It would seem that during walking five or six miles where you live that you would bump into somebody, a town, farming complex, or village of some kind. Can you get that far without walking into one without coverings?

SLOE GIN! In all of this time I never heard of sloe. I thought that it was a SLOW gin fizz, just a name! I did a quick Wikipedia search on the plant and its uses.

Whoa! We just arrived on page 100 for "How was Your Month." It's now an epic story, book length! AND it was pretty large before, where it was started at The Secret Naturist Society...

A sloe gin toast to that my fellows.
Jbee

[Davie]

All the routes we/I do are circular using public footpaths which in the UK are extensive. Sone walking is along minor roads. Coving up is done along or crossing busier roads and when kids are about. The maxim us if you suddenly have an encounter just wear a smile. Simple nudity is legal in the UK. It's rare to have an adverse reaction  with the worst being a man defending his wife from a non existent threat. Man scowls, wife smiles is what can happen.

Sloes are the fruit of the blackthorn bush. They look like blueberries but are harder and taste bitter. Put them in the freezer for a week or so to break the inside down then put then in a jar and cover with gin.  I then leave it for three months giving an occasional shake. It goes a lovely deep colour.  I then taste it. If it's a bit dry I add a little sugar syrp to taste. I can then enjoy the fruits of my labour.

I don't usually drink gin being a malt whisky lover. Than could be the start of a whole new thread!

Davie 

[rrfalcon]

"You wear a swimsuit on the beach in the Padre Island National Seashore? I never do. There are miles of open beach with little to no people.
I often park at the "sticks" at the North end of the park and hike in from there wearing a sarong to get past any textiles near the barrier, then continue bare for a mile or so.
When camping, I'll drive at least 10 miles into the park. I have spoken to the turtle patrols and rangers. As long as you aren't making a spectacle of your nudity, you will be fine.
~Safebare"

I don't have the opportunity to go anywhere other than the Malaquite Beach visitor center and beach, due to being with family and friends who don't want to get very far away from the facilities. So, a quick skinny dip with suit in hand is the best I can usually manage.

[nuduke]

Sorry fellows, this isn't naturism but I want to ask Davie a question:

Sloes are the fruit of the blackthorn bush. They look like blueberries but are harder and taste bitter. Put them in the freezer for a week or so to break the inside down then put then in a jar and cover with gin.  I then leave it for three months giving an occasional shake. It goes a lovely deep colour.  I then taste it. If it's a bit dry I add a little sugar syrp to taste. I can then enjoy the fruits of my labour.
Davie 

I've made sloe gin a few times and the last couple of annual gin makings, after muslin sieving out the sloes to clarify the liquor, a sediment has appeared after a few months which increases with time and the flavour goes a bit off.  I put this down to some sort of bacterial or fungal growth and have chucked it away.  Theoretically the alcohol should prevent this but maybe the sugar creates a yummy medium for bugs.  Or maybe it's some sort of chemical action?  Have you experienced it, Davie?  Any thoughts/tips?
John

[jbeegoode]

I'm interested, too, and you are forgiven, Nuduke.
I no longer drink, but I'm curious.

Jbeegoode

[Davie]

Re. Sloe gin. I freeze the sloes rather than pricking them out with a needle the old fashioned method. I always allow 2 - 3 weeks. I then put them in a clean jar for three months shaking them every now and then. I then strain through a metal sieve. There's very few particles left. I bottle and drink. I had a tipple a couple nights ago and it was fine having been bottled in January. There's always a small amount of sediment at the bottom of the bottle so pour carefully. The amount is minimal.

Don't put sugar in to start. If it's too dry add sugar sryup to taste. Make that up with equal parts sugar and water. Heat up to dissolve the sugar.

It always tastes better if the sloes are picked on a naturist walk - it reminds you of a happy summer.

Davie 

[ric]

Traditionally u need 2 gin bottles,   each half empty of gin, then fill the bottles with pricked sloes picked after the first frost, leave till Xmas ,agitating daily. Then strain and drink.


All my trips through new forest recently have been crap weather so no naked walks, did manage a morning on church Norton beach last week, again a bit chilly to actually venture in the water and more of an air bath than a sun bathe

[Safebare]

RRFalcon said: "I don't have the opportunity to go anywhere other than the Malaquite Beach visitor center and beach, due to being with family and friends who don't want to get very far away from the facilities. So, a quick skinny dip with suit in hand is the best I can usually manage."
I understand completely. Too bad though, The National Seashore is a great beach for clothing optional beachcombing. There is a Burner group in Corpus Christi that hosts beach clean-ups semiannually North of the Seashore. I occasionally help them out but always get the lecture from the organizer to keep my suit on. It just doesn't seem right, but I don't want to bring unwanted attention to their effort.
~Safebare

[Fellsnude]

Several points:
Ric - great to see you back!
RRFalcon - sympathy for your beach frustrations!
Davie - thanks for the hint about freezing sloes. August seems vary early for them to be ready!
August - another pretty hopeless month for me, mostly due to the weather in the Lake District but also because I had to have last year's hernia repair done again. Surgeon said about 3% fail and I was unlucky. So I've not been walking much, clothed or otherwise. UK is a greatly varied country for one so small, and that seems to be borne out this year by the variation in spring and summer weather around the country. Here, we haven't had as much rainfall as some parts, but there have been very few fully dry days and little warm sunshine.

I do have hopes for this weekend though.....

[jbeegoode]

ICK! Hernia! Mine was done a couple of years back, and I definitely don't want to go through that again, but alas it appears that I'm going to have to visit a doctor myself as it ain't right. 3%!!!!
Jbee

[nuduke]

AHA!  Thanks for the tip, Davie.  My recipe handed down from generation to generation off the internet (!!!) has sugar added.  Maybe that's what I did wrong.  I'll pop down the village and see if there's any sloes left and have another go.


Sorry to hear about hernias, FellsN and Jbee.  I have a friend with a very large hernia which he claims is inoperable so I'm familiar with the discomfort they bring and with metaphorical fingers crossed that I don't have to suffer the same fate.  Mind you, I think my friend hasn't pushed the medics hard enough - surely any hernia is operable these days?


John

[nuduke]

Gosh I am furious!
I was feeling a great lack of getting out in the open naked so I finally decided to try a local CO camping and naturism place - Lakeside Naturist Resort about 1.5 hours drive away. Naturist Holidays England Caravan Camping and Cottage Naturist .  I hadn't ever tried it before for 2 reasons 1- my dislike of going somewhere simply for the purposes of being naked.  My experience of landed naturist clubs in past is how boring they are, just sitting around sunbathing or wandering about - hours playing petanque holds out little attraction for me.  (Of course one can read a good book but one can do that naked at home!).  2- That 3 hrs driving for 3-4 hrs at the resort doesn't seem like a great payback to me!
I had rung them a few months ago with a view to trying them out and they have a decent booking system and the guy I spoke to was helpful and there was no restrictions on who could visit (I asked!) but he asked that we give them at least 24 hours notice as you get sent an entry code by email.
Last week, having the above mentioned desire to get skyclad before the autumn really set in and noting a good weather window 2 days ahead, yo oblige with the requested leadtime, I fired up my computer to make the booking.
Judge of my horror when I saw that the website had changed, the whole tone of it had changed and I found I was now persona non grata and banned as a single male.
What is this hatred of single males by landed clubs?  It really gets my goat.  What's wrong with us?  Is it that we are in too great numbers and outnumber couples and single women?  If so why the hell do they all turn down a majority of paying customers - can't be a great business decision that.
I am angry and frustrated at a majority being discriminated against.  At least in it's former incarnation, Lakeside was not prejudiced against single men whereas, you might have read from a previous post, the most local co club to me is pretty much closed to single men.  But no, Lakeside have joined the naturist legion of bigots.  What a crying shame.
I'm going to write to them and ask WHY they have made this change.  I fancy it might be because someone has told them that single men naturists are all voyeurs and sexual perverts.... and if it's because one single male was recently a bit pervy, out of years of a majority of peaceable singles visiting, I shall be even more angry at the knee jerk reaction of that. 
John

[jbeegoode]

Lo siento Nuduke. I feel your frustration and anger. It would seem that at least a single male visit could be hosted/sponsored by a regular member, or two.

Would it help if you sported a BN membership card? Card carrying nudist generally have some cred and get treated more positively. I'd also somewhat lie and and stretch out my naturist resume.
Jbee