Current view. As you can see, I didn't lay in official Advent candles for this year. I'm just using little plain votives in tea-light holders, mostly because I like to burn my candles every night at dinner and don't want to stress about burning them down too quickly. This Advent wreath form has holders for tall, thin candles, but I have found that those don't last nearly long enough to suit me, and I don't want to keep having to buy them. Last year I used glass votive holders, glued precariously onto each little angel figure's head, and tied a purple or pink ribbon around each one, but then the heat of the candles melted the cheap ribbon, so . . . here we are, which is a thing I seem to say a lot. I'll admit to being a big fan of the path of least resistance in many things. Anyway, the wreath is marked on each side with HOPE, PEACE, JOY, and LOVE, which helps us keep track. The Christ Candle is just a big Yankee-Candle-type candle to which I have affixed gold ribbon very artistically with packing tape. If I don't like melting ribbon, I'm actively paranoid about having loose ribbon ends, or loose ends of anything, really, encounter open flame. I live in a house with hundred-year-old knob-and-tube wiring, but these are the fire hazards I worry about.
I always set the table with purple in Advent as well. Right now I'm using these placemats, which my mother gave me some years back, though I also have a purple tablecloth (actually a damask shower curtain I found for $2 at the Good Neighbor Shop about ten years ago) which gets heavy use during the penitential seasons. The runner here was a gift from my daughter, who got it in Germany, either on a trip with my mother or on her travels during her University of Dallas Rome Semester, I can't remember which. Anyway, it's one of my great treasures.
Another day in the kitchen with Dora, who seems recovered from her stressful day at the vet yesterday. We had a quiet walk in the neighborhood this morning, and I'll probably go for another low-human-encounter walk this afternoon as well, rather than attempting the busier greenway. Yesterday afternoon, as we were returning from a very short, low-encounter walk, she growled at a woman who spoke to me from across the street –– granted, it was right in front of our house, which I'm sure she understands as her territory, but that was an indicator to me of just how thin her margin for stressful encounters was. So today we're going to continue to take it easy and as trigger-free as possible, before we essay the higher traffic of the greenway trail again.
I'm also going to do some loose-leash training and games in the house, because pulling also continues to be what I guess you might call a growth area for Dora. It's nice to be able to work a little on my own projects, then take some time out for a short lesson with Dora, as a rhythm for the day. As much as I enjoy and need the epic walks, days like this are important for us right now.
Here we are in the kitchen with a favorite squeaky tennis ball.
Wearing my beloved Sierra dress again –– I got up and put it right on for our walk this morning, because I knew it would be cold out. Thrifted Athleta drape cardigan, scarf knitted for me by my cousin's wife about ten years ago. These aren't my best colors, the colors in the scarf, but it does have a good bit of purple, and it's soft and warm. I wear it a lot in the winter.
Not clearly shown in these photos: my second pair of Xero clearance-sale shoes, the Oswego model, which came yesterday.
I'll be honest: I would not have gone out of my way to buy purple shoes. They had some loden-green ones that I really wanted, but those were sold out in my size. But you know, these are nothing if not seasonal. They make the perfect pop of Advent color to complement an otherwise mostly-neutral outfit. They are also nothing if not insanely comfortable and warm. Though, like my sandals, they're also minimalist shoes, the sole has a little more shape and padding than the sandals, which I think is a good thing. Still, they're very much feet on the ground shoes. I bought a half-size up from my regular size, having read that many Xero styles run small; they fit fine and are quite comfortable, though I could have bought my normal size, as I did in the sandals, and also been fine. I love the roomy toe box most of all –– no pressure on my bunion. These are intended for all kinds of walking and light hiking, and are supposed to be water-resistant, though I might well go ahead and Scotchguard them anyway, just to be on the safe side. I can see wearing them a lot, year round, but especially for a lot of the hiking we do, where my Vasque boots are sort of overkill. I appreciate having something more flexible, again largely because of the bunion, which I certainly feel on hikes, especially on the final descent. These would be a good lightweight shoe for travel, too, appropriate on a city street with a dress, as well as on the trail . . . again with a dress, since that's what I seem to wear to hike in anymore.
I'm wearing them here with my Snag merino tights, which continue to be comfortable and thermal. On cold days, truly, nothing beats wool. I am noticing that my merino tights are wearing thin in the crotch, however, which surprises me, as I don't wear them anything like daily. I will mend them as needed, because I intend to get lots of wear out of them, but still I'm a little surprised that already they're showing as much wear and stress as they are. I . . . uh . . . will not photograph the area while I have them on, but I'll try to remember to get a shot when I take them off. Again, I still love them and will wear them and keep them mended. And I guess, considering that they cost $20, which is expensive for tights but cheap for merino . . . well, anyway. Nothing is perfect in this world, but many things are pretty good, and pretty good is good enough. Note to self to that effect, again.
Overall, happy with it all. And now back to work. I began today drafting my Author's Note for the end of the novel, which seems like a milestone. I need to have the whole thing submitted by the end of the month, and this gives me a sense of distance from the text itself, which I could keep going over obsessively until the end of time and still not feel that I had revised sufficiently. Writing a "note" about it feels a little like a necessary act of renunciation.
So, yeah, basically, that and dog training.
LATER:
Bonus footage of Dora engaged with a puzzle toy. Our old dog, Lance, had no clue what to do with any kind of toy, and even the prospect of food inside a toy could not motivate him, a normally food-driven creature, to investigate said toy. Dora, on the other hand, has been busy with this for the last half-hour.