Our big laurels are blooming in the backyard, sending out their subtle, vaguely soapy scent.
All the less-tended areas of the garden are flourishing in their out-of-control way. Here we have an explosion of mountain mint, keeping company with a few four-o'-clocks and wood-iris fronds:
There's some blue sage in that bed, too, though it's hard to see in this light. You have to catch it just right for it to show up. All my best-ever photos of it are of the clump in the container garden, where it's more or less by itself:
The bees love it as much as I do. I spent some time this morning after our walk just looking at views of this garden with its little walkway, and admiring it. Granted, I still haven't trellised the tomatoes, and at this late date probably can't without doing them damage, but I think they'll be okay. They can spill over the sides of the containers, and I don't think the fruit will be any worse for it.
I'm loving the flexible space a container garden creates --- still plenty of room for containers and grow bags as I want to add them, especially along this side. I have fence space for probably ten more blackberry vines at the moment, and when we get the rest of our fencing up, I'll have one whole side for a grapevine, plus the outside perimeter for a blueberry hedge. Plus I have plenty of pollinator plants right in this kitchen garden, as well as all over the rest of the yard, front and back. The whole thing is feeling like a really lovely ecosystem. Even this far into the summer I'm still picking salad greens (arugula, mostly) --- we had an arugula salad with oil, balsamic vinegar, and a little parmesan as an accompaniment to our chicken last night. I have banana peppers already, though they're still really small, and hope to have cayenne and jalepeno peppers soon. We're not exactly living off the land at this point, but I'm buying far less produce than I was even two weeks ago. And I'm already planning my fall plantings of spinach, more arugula, butter lettuce, etc. I have chard growing which I expect will winter over as well. Plenty of thyme, both English and lemon, plenty of sage, plenty of oregano, plenty of lavender, plus some chives that I started from seed, which are growing up with the calendulas, though they're a bit obscured by them at the moment:
More zinnias, because who doesn't love zinnias:
And a close-up of some yellow four-o'-clocks about to close up shop for the day:
As I noted yesterday, I've ordered some color remover and dye to try and refurbish my stained purple bamboo swing dress. I have my plastic bucket at the ready; just need to acquire some more white vinegar. I did let myself look for similar dresses on Poshmark yesterday, and that was a mistake, because now I'm having to steel myself against temptation, but fortunately, having already bought the dye, I have a reason to resist.
Meanwhile, wearing today:
Short-sleeved blue bamboo swing dress + purple Xero Oswegos for walking. I'll probably change into tan sandals later on. I slept in this dress, then rolled out, put on clean underthings, popped on shoes, and was out the door with Dora . . . and I can't see any real reason to change now, other than to put on jewelry and cooler shoes.
I really could wear nothing but blue dresses, in the same way that other people wear nothing but black. Blue suits me, which means it never gets old.
Here I am wearing my usual selfie expression: vaguely worried:
I really do smile a lot more than this in real life. Otherwise, I like this photo because it shows what blue does for me, even when I'm feeling self-conscious and therefore not radiating joy. My eyes show up. My skin tone looks even and fresh. Not that I don't have lines and flaws --- believe me, I do --- and they'd show up a lot more in brighter lighting, but all the same, just as I am, without any makeup on, I feel totally presentable, even pretty, because the color I'm wearing is doing the right things for me. It harmonizes with my pink-toned skin. It plays up the blue element in my eyes. It's the right level of saturation and brightness not to overwhelm my medium-contrast coloring, and not so harsh as to wash out that coloring. I can wear other colors well: grays, pinks, burgundies, some greens, some whites, some purples. But I don't think I even have to declare a signature color, because it's obvious. My style album reveals a fair amount of variation, but also an overwhelming theme. I don't have to tell you what it is.
OK, I tried to smile:
And on with the day.
LATER: Thoughts about wearing blue (or any other color) the way other people wear black ---
In a recent email, Nat Tucker talks about hitting her thirties, looking at photographs of herself, and realizing that she was seeing a lot of black. Or as she puts it, "just how black I looked in every photo."
Working in retail, constantly pressured to buy new clothes, she bought black because, as she thought, at least it would all go together. But cumulatively, as she began to notice, her whole look was dissolving into a sea of black.
I think what she's saying here is this: the problem wasn't necessarily that she was wearing the same color all the time. The problem was that what she had chosen as a supposedly easy default was a color that wasn't doing anything for her. When she looked at those photos of herself, herself wasn't really what she saw. Instead, she saw her black clothes, foregrounding themselves at her expense.
The problem isn't really using a particular color as a default mode. The problem is the assumption that black, for example, works as a default mode for everyone. For some people it does. But it's hardly the universal fallback that many of us believe it is.
Obviously I don't believe that. Still I find that I wear my clothes --- for better or worse --- as someone who does have a default mode. The difference, I think, is that I've found a default mode that doesn't foreground itself, but foregrounds me. When I look at photos of myself wearing blue, as on the grid of my Google Photos style album, yeah, okay, there's a lot of blue, but it doesn't seem monolithic in the same way.
Part of this, of course, is that there are a lot of shades of blue. You have way more variety within that field than you do with black. I have one friend who said to me recently, "Oh, I could have bet that you'd be wearing a blue dress today," but most people probably don't even notice that I wear the same color ninety percent of the time, because I wear different shades of the same color.
BUT ALSO: my default mode flatters me. It is a good color for me. It's not a universal uniform that I just put on because everybody else was doing it (or everybody arty, or everybody chic, or everybody dramatic, or whatever). It's the right uniform for me --- which means that when I wear it, my face shows up. My personality shows up. I have a skin color, eye color, lip color, and they all show up, because my default color enhances them particularly.
So, because I haven't made this plug recently, this IS a plug for figuring out what color/s actually look/s good on you. Not black, because it's versatile. Not black, because it goes with everything. But what actually works as a good default color for you --- your coloring, your personality --- so that when you look back at photos of yourself, you don't see a sea of some color that obscures who you are. I know a lot of us cringe at the idea of photos of ourselves. That's partly why I started this blog and began taking daily selfies: to teach myself to show up for photos, because making myself invisible does nothing for anybody, least of all the people who love me and want to have mementos of me. Because really: however much you might cringe, it's good to want to see yourself in your photos. That's what your loved ones want to treasure.
Anyway, find the right default for yourself and wear the heck out of it. Show up in photos wearing it, and S M I L E.
EVEN LATER:
Blue is my default, but I still like purple, as for going out to Mass for the feast of these English martyrs, then to dinner someplace. Been a minute since I wore this dress, anyway.
Kind of fun wavy Day-Two hair, too.