Another frosty morning, and a quickie before Mass.
I'm very Team Basic today in my Sierra wool dress, with Snag merino tights, a thrifted cashmere cardigan, and a pair of Clarks boots that I've had since maybe 2015 or 2016. I haven't worn them in a really long time, and I don't think I like them nearly as much as my taller camel boots from two years ago. Still, I think they provide some nice dark grounding for a fairly gray outfit, and they make a change.
I'm seeing this dress as the core of my travel/reading/speaking wardrobe when I hit the road about a month from now for events in Virginia and Maryland. Things are shaping up on that score! Ordinarily I'd be panicking about what I was going to wear, but just looking at these pictures, I think: yeah, Sierra, a cardigan or jacket, tights and boots. Everywhere I go. It'll be Lent, which means I'll be wearing purple somewhere on my person daily, but that's not a real kink in my plan.
Daily Wardrobe Tracking Spreadsheet
LATER:
I did put on a scarf for church: this one, which some of my children gave me years ago for Christmas. It's completely innocent of any natural fiber, but it is soft, the color are pretty, and I like the jaquard pattern.
Also:
Here's some of the dog hair I wore as an additional layer.
STILL MORE:
As I have noted before, my no-buy year* applies only to clothing (for me), with some exemptions. It does not apply to, for example, plants for the kitchen garden. I have just bought three more blackberry vines, two large blueberry bushes, and one elderberry bush, because I think it might be cool to try elderberries.
I need to get some more fencing up around said garden, to have something to plant things against. AND I need some more 20-gallon-ish containers. I do have a big rubbermaid bin that I think I'm going to cause to be hauled into that space to serve as my strawberry bed, because we're definitely going to do strawberries.
Every morning I go out with Dora, and I pace around my garden space, and I THINK.
I'm also thinking that the old apple tree really, this year, finally, needs to go, because it's looked sick several years running and doesn't bear. I could rip out the volunteer laurels along the fence on that same side, bring the bed out a little farther, and plant 2-3 dwarf fruit trees, still leaving more room for my old-but-still-bearing fig tree than it's ever had since we've lived here.
I had thought I didn't have room for an orchard, especially since I've planted so many redbuds . . . but turns out I probably do have room for an orchard, if I'm creative and careful and plant small varieties.
*Almost a month in, though! So far, so good.