My zoom lens is not great, but here's a finch on the feeder this morning --- I
think a house finch, though I keep meaning to check my field guide. Pairs of them, or a pair repeatedly, have been frequent visitors in the last few weeks.
Morning view including Dora, who's already jumped the fence three times this morning, going after squirrels. I fear I'm going to have to acquire a tie-out to put her on in the yard, before we get a citation for letting her run loose. Mind you, she doesn't run loose for more than about three minutes at a time --- for all her annoying tendencies, she is very good about recall. I imagine the whole neighborhood knows her name by now, since I'm continually bellowing it out at all hours.
Other garden sights after a night of heavy rain:
The four-o'clocks have decided to come up, and glad I am to see them.
A handful of blueberries, to go with our handfuls of blackberries and strawberries.
One of my two Jubilee Blueberries, bought this year and probably not going to bear at all, by the looks of it.
Lemon thyme in bloom.
The whole well-watered garden this morning, with more rain in the forecast. The sun keeps slipping in and out, but I think we're supposed to have a very wet week, which isn't bad news.
I'm busy this week with various things:
*novel copy-edits have come back, so I need to give the whole thing a careful read-through and respond to those notes.
*a poet friend, Jane Greer, has a new book coming out, and I've agreed to write an endorsement, so I need to get reading, now that she's sent me the MS
*I have poems for the Sun to prep and put up
*I need to start approaching my list of people for endorsements for the novel, a thought that fills me with dread, but although the publisher offered to do it for me, I really think I should ask them myself.
*I need as well to give the final laser copy of Christian Poetry in America a read-over today
*we're having a student of my husband's over for dinner tomorrow night, so I must get my ducks in a row in the kitchen and do a little modest housecleaning
So, plenty to do.
Wearing today: it's True Confessions time. I'm wearing what I slept in last night. It still smells okay, however, and I am wearing clean underthings, so . . . hopefully that's not gross.
This is the cotton sheath dress I bought off the clearance rack at Walmart, a total impulse purchase, in the fall of 2019. One of the reasons I'm wearing it after sleeping in it is that sleeping in it loosens up the knit a little, so that it fits less snugly than when I've just gotten it out of the wash (not that that's relevant right now, since we still have no washing machine, and I am holding out hard on going to the laundromat). It is all cotton, which breathes --- it's not antimicrobial the way wool and bamboo are, but it does breathe, and I must have stayed pretty cool last night, because again, it doesn't smell after being slept in. I like the shape and the neckline, though I think the hem is maybe a little awkward. It would be more flattering if it hit either just a little higher, like right at the base of my knees, or a little lower, more like a maxi dress. But it's fine.
I began with the dress just as she comes, but took a few minutes to play with options for styling today. Qualifications: I didn't want to be too dressed up, and I did want to accommodate the fact that it's really wet out. Of my casual shoes, my tan fake Birks would have been my first choice, but they get so slimy if the ground is wet, and I am trying not to ruin them. So I committed myself to a limited and maybe less-optimal range of shoes that can cope with wet conditions.
Like my Xero Colorados:
These aren't the perfect choice from the style perspective: they don't match the dress, which is good, but dark-on-dark, hemline and shoe, isn't ideal. As I said, tan would be a great option. I don't have any white shoes, which might also have been good, if also not ideal in wet and mud. But these are fun and comfortable and practical, and are indeed what I have wound up wearing.
BUT. I did try another waterproof option:
I bought these little teal Crocs on Ebay a couple of summers ago, and I really like them. They're fun and flattering and indestructible. I also tend to forget that I have them, though putting them front and center on the shoe rack I inherited from my daughter should help. I like them with this dress: they provide a nice little pop of color against the more neutral navy.
Experimentally, I threw together a dressier outfit that would work for church, or even some professional situation:
This is nice, with all the blue-on-blue. I like how the longline cardigan plays with the kind-of-curvy dress. This is flattering and comfortable, and I would totally wear it --- AND it's good to remind myself that I do have dress options that aren't above-the-knee.
But this is a little dressy for today, so I didn't go with it. I did try throwing on the pullover I saved from the outbox, because the weather is a lot cooler than it has been. And . . .
Eh. It's a little boxy. Maybe in the fall with tan boots. I think this pullover might do well with something narrow on the bottom, like my sage-green shorts ---- it's lacy enough to balance those out. The boat neck is maybe a little awkward, and you absolutely have to be wearing something underneath, all of which reminds me why I think I outboxed the sweater to begin with. It might very well go back there, but I thought I'd give it one more chance.
Anyway, what I wound up with was this:
Green thrifted cotton cardigan, with the blue dress and Colorado sandals. It's not that exciting an outfit, all darker tones, but I like the green and blue together, and this is about the note I wanted to strike: reasonably put together, with good colors, but not really dressed up.
Here's a shot in natural light of the colors and the neckline:
As you can see, this is a brighter, washed navy --- if it didn't start out "washed," it's certainly gotten that way over two and a half years of wear. The inset raw edge along the v-neck is a nice touch for an extremely cheap dress.
Sometimes I feel great in this dress. Sometimes I don't. If I gain a pound or two, it's not forgiving. On good days, it makes me feel kind of like a pin-up girl. Today I'm going with that.
PS: If I wanted to look sharp, I'd add a belt, but so far I haven't done that.
