Gratuitous shot of part of the upstairs book stack. So much to read that I'm having a decision-fatigue implosion, just thinking about what I might read next. Meanwhile, as bedtime reading I'm mainlining Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn murder mysteries and considering just how much Alleyn is a Morse prototype . . . there's certainly a tradition in the British murder mystery, and the Oxford-misfit detective is one of its major strands. I suppose Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter could also fit into this strand –– Oxford educated, not your expected sleuth type, I guess (though of course this becomes precisely what you do expect) –– though he's not a policeman and therefore not a misfit among colleagues, and although he has to pursue Harriet for a long time before he gets her, he's a lot more easily successful in and less tortured by his encounters with women generally. But then he's rich and knows how to be charming. Neither Alleyn nor Morse seems to fall into either of those categories, though it's early days with Alleyn yet. I'm only up to #4 in that series. In a lot of ways it's total brain candy, but on the other hand, this kind of novel gives you things to think about.
Here too is the table I removed from the landing outside my sons' room, on which the books used to live. For the time being the table lives in the doorway of my husband's office, where I put it because I thought it would get disposed of faster if it was actually in his way all the time.
The crack was already there when we received the table as part of a general load of largesse from my mother's old house, when she moved. Bearing up under the weight of all those books has hardly improved matters. I think we want to put it out on the curb –– I just don't know where else to put it in the house, though it is a better size for two people than our current kitchen table. Anyway, so far what happens is that I shove it into the office doorway, and my husband shoves it aside when he wants to use his office, and that's the position.
Last week I took my whole outbox, plus outgrown clothing from the upstairs regions, to donate. I've started afresh this week filling my outbox, looking again at the contents of my closet and being stern with myself about what I am and am not likely to wear again. A light-blue long-sleeved Talbots knit top (thrifted) was one of the casualties today –– I'd been hanging onto it because I liked the smocked yoke so much, but I noticed that not only did it have several little holes in the body, but it had also sprung at least one in the arm. I just don't need to hang onto thrifted clothing with holes, I told myself, so out it went. Mind you, I won't take the outbox to donate again for another six weeks or so, but as I keep finding things to wear with my Camellia dress, I notice both what I don't wear with it, and, more and more, what I'm not likely to wear, given that I have enough better options to get me handily through a season.
I also added my bleach-dyed blue dress to the mix –– it was a thrifted favorite several years ago, and I've worn a few times since I bleach-dyed it to cover a stain, but it's far less comfortable and flattering than other dresses I own at this stage, and I think it's time to pass it on.
Note that my outbox isn't that large. It's just a plastic laundry tote from Aldi. It fills up pretty fast, and though I do mull over my decisions for a good while before I make them irrevocable, I can't really hang onto things forever if I don't want a major overflow.
Meanwhile, wearing Camellia with a scarf for a belt today:
Day 3 hair in a sideswept braid which I hope doesn't fall down on the other side.
Some additional angles of same:
At least from one side, the scarf tails do a great job of camoflaging my not-flat stomach.
From the other side, not so much, maybe, but what the heck. I look the way I look. Might as well just roll with it.
After I took these shots, the mail came, and what did it bring but my Birkenstock Madeiras, purchased secondhand on Ebay last week:
Gooby pose, but when you've set up your phone on the floor, it's what you do.
Anyway, I'm really happy with these. They're insanely comfortable. I can wear them right away for a slightly less summery look, but they'll be great with all my tights and leggings when the fall weather really does come. They'll be perfect for walking, too, which is a plus, since I don't like to wear sneakers all that much (speaking of things I should make myself put in the outbox . . . ). I can wear them in all but the wettest, grossest weather, which is why I own boots, anyway.
If only Birkenstock made hiking boots. My one complaint about my twenty-nine-year-old Vasque boots (last seen in action on Saturday) is that the stiffness of the leather –– mostly a plus, because it's why they've held up, and why they offer good support in rocky terrain –– and the relative narrowness of the toe box makes them uncomfortable to wear for really long periods if you have a bunion. They were fine for Saturday's hike, which didn't last more than a couple of hours and didn't involve a lot of really intense, sustained downhill walking. But on longer hikes with a lot more downhill, as much as I like and appreciate these boots, I have wound up with sorer feet by the end than I'm really happy with. My husband just bought some light hikers by Keen and raved about them on Saturday –– one thing I noticed immediately when he put them on was that the toe box was a lot wider and squarer than both his old Merrell boots and my Vasques. But yeah, if Birkenstock would get into the hiking game, I'd buy that boot in a flash. At any rate, I expect to do a lot of walking in these Madeiras.
On the docket for today:
*grocery shopping for the week
*write 500 words OR one poem draft
*pick something to revise
*read Jacob's Room in addition to Ngaio Marsh
*make a stab at cleaning or organizing something –– the laundry room is a candidate, although it's awfully hot out there right now, and that job is likely to be dirty and gross, because that's how the laundry room gets in a hurry
*Self-Control myself out of social media for the afternoon so that I will actually achieve . . . something
Also . . . only five days until I'm halfway through this dress challenge. How the time does fly.
**My finish date is Sunday, October 24, incidentally. Just counted it up to be sure. It'll be interesting to see what the weather's doing by then. I hope some dress that I want will be available for a reward dress; I think I might also buy a third dress for a birthday gift to myself, since my birthday's two weeks and a day after the end of my challenge. That would really set me up for the next year –– I'd like to acquire both a long-sleeved dress (leaning toward the Willow at this moment, in either washed navy or vintage blue) and a Sierra in either washed navy (if I don't get a Willow in that color) or charcoal heather. I'm just really praying that they won't sell out of everything and have a months'-long waiting list for dresses when the time comes.