The sun is out again today, and the ajuga is beautiful, anticipating Advent with its purpling foliage.
A still-life of the firepit, because today is the day when we remember, remember . . . the centuries-long disenfranchisement of Catholics in England . . . but bonfires are still pretty fun. Maybe we'll actually light one tonight.
So far today I have:
*Slept late and missed my chance to be ready in time to accompany my husband to Mass at eleven, but oh well.
*Finished and sent in a brief endorsement of my friend Paul Pastor's book of poems, Bower Lodge, which will be out soon from Fernwood Press. In fact, Paul is running some pre-order specials on his website right now, highlighting the visual art that accompanies the book.
*Thought more about my next essay for the Institute for Classical Education blog. I'd intended to write on another upper-elementary classic novel, but have found myself instead writing about "The Detective Story and the Way of Virtue," and the place that even fairly formulaic mystery-genre fiction might hold in a virtue-centered curriculum. My own children started reading Agatha Christie, for example, about the same time they started reading things like Jane Eyre, but I want to mention a range of mystery novels and series from the elementary level forward. In addition to the standard Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys franchises –– not great literature, obviously, but there's a reason why children devour them, and it's not a bad reason at all –– my children also enjoyed things like Henry Winterfeld's ancient-Roman mysteries, Detectives in Togas and The Roman Ransom. Anyway, I've written about 700 words of this essay and am happy I went with this impulse, especially since I've had detective stories on the brain anyway.
*Continued short-story revisions.
*Talked to my mother-in-law on the phone.
*Talked to my youngest daughter on the phone, exhorting her to go to the university business office to sort out some billing issue that I know nothing about and therefore cannot sort out myself. Also learning that what she wants for her birthday in December is a banjo.
*Washed and more or less dried my hair, gotten dressed, and gone outside to breathe the fresh autumnal air.
Sierra dress again, with pink belt, merino Snag tights in "Silver Lining," Doc Martens, a thrifted duck-egg-blue blouse underneath, and my daughter's ancient dark-gray hooded cardigan, which has become mine just because it got left here. I sort of feel like a postwar British nurse in this ensemble. All I need is a watch pinned to my bosom, and a cape instead of a cardigan.
It's Friday! Friday! That penitential day when we eat fish, but nobody said nothing about not drinking beer.
LATER:
A few additional pictures from the morning that show more of my shirt. And the drying rack, because who can ever get enough drying-rack content?
This shirt has a wonderful tucked front, like a tuxedo shirt, which is great on its own, but I couldn't have worn it under my Camellia without all the tucks showing through. It's otherwise sort of a weird shirt, cut almost like a maternity shirt, though I can't find any evidence on any label that that's what it's supposed to be. But I fell in love with the color, and I think it's beautiful with the dark gray.
Clipping my almost-dry hair back out of my face, because it was driving me crazy:
I like having a long bang for softness around my face, until I don't. Little claw clips are actually great for getting hair out of your face, and I would love to acquire some silver ones. I've seen them on Etsy –– silver-plated clips in various sizes –– and have hungered after them, but then I forget about them until the next time I put plastic claw clips in my hair and, again, think, Wouldn't it be cool to have some, like, really classy versions of these?
Also dragged myself out for a walk. It's not cold, but it's chilly and blustery, real November weather. I am happy to report that I was perfectly warm in my Sierra (even with a cotton shirt underneath), wool tights, and this I'm-sure-it's-all-acrylic sweater that's been hanging around our house for something like twelve years:
Since I put the headband on, I've moved it to various positions on my head. Generally I wind up with JUST GET THIS HAIR OUT OF MY FACE, especially when it's windy.
This headband came in a pack of two, with a kind of mint-green one that I've also worn a lot. They're Goody brand, I think, and are bamboo –– these were really the first bamboo items I owned, and the softness of them was what made me think I might like to wear bamboo clothing on the rest of my body. I was much happier on my walk than I appear in this photograph.