I could learn to love these evening rains. Well: I do love them. This one, last night, didn't last long, but it gave the garden a good pounding. The smell was so marvelous, too.
One of these days, the camellia tree is going to overgrow the back door so we can't get out, but it's not quite there yet.
It's Monday, another week (as if that weren't stating the absolute obvious). I've just remembered a book review I need to write --- time to comb through my email to find the .pdf of the book! AND of course I need to go searching for poems for the Sun, the never-ending task.
The sun's out now, and the windows are all steamed up. I haven't looked at what the temperatures are for today, though at a glance yesterday I got the impression that it's not going to be all that hot: low 90s, mostly. I'm still drinking my coffee while Dora sleeps, or at least is quiet in her crate for a while longer.
Writing a poem in hexameters, another five-finger exercise. I'm roughing it out right now, just trying to hear six pulses in each line; later, I guess, I'll go back and actually count metrical feet and adjust to make it more clearly metrical, since I'm choosing to care about strict meter this summer.
But I can hear Dora shaking her tags in her crate, so I guess now it's walk time.
Wearing today, for my July 4/3 Challenge:
Of the various choices on which I ruminated yesterday, I have opted for the last, this shapeless Old Navy jumpsuit, which I bought two years ago, at the tail end of my fast-fashion buying life. There's a lot to like about this jumpsuit, as I am always reminded when I wear it:
*the ease of one-piece dressing
*the surprisingly lovely color, which I wouldn't have thought would do good things for me, but does
*the graceful neckline and bare shoulders
*the fluid shape: again, easy to wear with many accessories, or none, belted or unbelted as you see it here.
Things not to like:
*the synthetic fabric, which doesn't breathe as one would wish
*the probably totally unethical manufacture, which means that although I bought this item once, I'm committed to not making such purchases anymore --- but then I'm also committed to not buying synthetics, so either way . . .
So, I wore it today for my walk with Dora in hot but not scorching temps. Again, our highs are in the low 90s this week, not bad compared with many other areas of the country right now. Today is humid, quite warm, and very sunny, and I was walking along some shadeless stretches of the greenway trail. How would the jumpsuit stand up to this activity? That was the question I asked myself as we set out.
The answer: not as badly as I had feared. I can't remember the last time I wore an outfit whose fabric covered all my legs, and that might well account for a large part of the (minimal) discomfort I felt while walking. I'm not sure these long wide trousers were much hotter, if at all hotter, than similar trousers in cotton would have felt. The bodice was cool and breezy, which makes sense, since it's fairly minimal. I was sweaty, but stayed pretty dry. For what it's worth, I think this is supposed to be a moisture-wicking fabric, and it seems to have performed that way. I'll almost definitely want to wash it when I take it off tonight, since it has none of the anti-odor/anti-microbial properties of wool or bamboo, but all in all, since I own it, I'm not sorry to be wearing it.
In fact, I look forward to wearing it more as the summer verges into fall, as it will be doing in just over a month. This jumpsuit is the kind of thing I was really pining to wear last September and October, when I was doing my 100-Day Challenge, which confined me to one summery light-blue dress. The jumpsuit's color, which again I am surprised to love as much as I do, is perfect for more fallish dressing, even when temperatures are still hovering around 90F, as they do for much of September, at any rate. Transitional dressing is always so tricky, but one thing that last year's dress challenge clarified for me was how much color can make you feel like one season or another.
As shapeless as this jumpsuit is, I do always feel unexpectedly pretty in it.
As simple as it is, in this Team Basic presentation, it plays well with my trusty blue Birks. Maybe it's just that I also put my hair up, but something about this outfit suggests that I tried to look good today --- when really I didn't try any harder than if I'd put on a huge schlubby t-shirt and some gym shorts (which I don't actually own, but we can imagine that I might have chosen, actively, not to wear such a thing).
This jumpsuit is good for travel, too, at least from the standpoint of packing easily and not wrinkling. Over many days, the synthetic fabric might not stay as fresh as I would want, but I have taken this item with me on short trips and been glad I had it.
Given everything I've said about this jumpsuit, I suppose it's not surprising that I've been eyeing Wool&'s forthcoming jumpsuit model with some longing. The redwood version looks like, really, a better-quality version of what I already like about the jumpsuit I have, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted by it. But I dunno. I have this jumpsuit. On many levels it works just fine for me. I don't wear it often enough for washing it to create a significant microplastic problem, I don't think --- and outboxing and donating it wouldn't exactly solve that ethical issue.
Once my buying window repoens, around my birthday, I will have some decisions to make, because obviously I can't buy everything on my wishlist at once. How I'll arrive at those decisions I'm not precisely sure, but I can envision some useful questions to ask --- things like:
*Does this item duplicate some perfectly good thing I already own (ahem *jumpsuit* ahem)?
*How often would I wear this item (I keep looking at Sierra dresses in different colors, because I know how often and with what pleasure I wear the Sierra dress I already own)?
*Does this item fill a real need (for example: I'm thinking about good-looking boots that are comfortable enough for serious walking in cold weather, as opposed to being either good-looking or good for walking, because if I can't walk a long way in a pair of shoes or boots, I won't wear them on a daily basis, and I really would like something I can just put on and wear in the same way that I'm currently wearing my EVA Birks)?
I'm lucky in that, looking ahead to the fall, there are relatively few big-ticket items I need. I don't need a winter coat. I've had the same winter coat since 2005, and I love it every bit as much now as I did when I got it. I don't really need a lot of cardigans or pullover sweaters, though I'd like to fill in some color gaps, and I certainly wear cardigans a lot, through three seasons of the year.
Realistically, I'll probably buy two, maybe three of the items on my list, most of which cost in the neighborhood of $120-$150. I know I can't buy them all. I know I can revisit thrift and secondhand sources for some things, especially cardigans. I do have my eye on one or two slightly less expensive labels which at least purport to be sustainable/slow-fashion sources. It'll all work out, but I will need to ask the questions and answer myself honestly before I buy.
And with that, I realize that I'm boring myself to smithereens and need to think about something else. How bout some hexameters?