Beautiful cosmos by the back gate: still blooming, even though we had a freeze last night. When we got up this morning, the temperature was 30F. I'm glad I brought in all my houseplants and picked the last of the peppers and eggplant day before yesterday. Everything that needs to be inside is inside, surviving away.
It's been another frosty but lovely morning for a walk and some time at the empty dog park. I guess now I'm doing an actual series of dog-park selfies, since that's a little more interesting setting than my bathroom.
Of course, one thing about cold weather is that when I'm outdoors, you can't actually see much of what I'm wearing. For the next few months, you can accept this gray puffer jacket (a Christmas gift from my oldest daughter several years ago) as a given, but what's under it?
Well, as you can probably see, I've repeated a good bit of yesterday's outfit, because it was pretty warm. I'm wearing my Wool& Sierra dress again, and also my Snag merino charcoal-gray tights, which I hung to air on the drying rack last night, and which smelled fine this morning. Also repeated the Xero Tari boots, which like the coat will be pretty much a given until sandal weather rolls round again.
On yesterday's walk I was regretting not wearing a scarf, so I added one today. Keeping things gray and tonal with this thrifted pashmina, which I wish was cashmere but is in fact viscose. It's soft, though, and pretty warm, as well as sheeny. I should really hang it out and steam it to get rid of the wrinkles, which it wants to hold onto in the worst way, but even so, it's a really nice accessory. I hope to get a lot more wear out of my scarf collection this winter than I did last year --- that's one thing I've made a deliberate note of to myself.
I have also added more layers than I was wearing yesterday. Obviously there's the scarf. But here's the whole breakdown, minus the coat:
I was wearing a cardigan yesterday, too, but not this one: thrifted alpaca, bought in Highlands when I was there visiting a friend several weeks ago. It's beautifully warm and adds a muted note of color to my otherwise gray-on-gray outfit.
BUT under the cardigan:
A long-sleeved thermal layer. This is a bamboo tunic I bought last December off Poshmark and have not worn nearly enough. Bamboo makes a great layer next to your skin: it's silky-soft and for my money, really performs just about as well as wool in terms of thermal insulation, breathability, and moisture-wicking. It makes a very comfortable base, especially when layered with wool. Out in the sun and wind I was perfectly warm --- almost too warm, at the end.
In the house now I'm wearing just this basic outfit: Sierra as jumper over gray long-sleeved top with merino tights and boots. It's as comfortable as pajamas, yet put together. The boots are great for walking, light and comfortable and warm --- yet they also add instant polish to any outfit. This was precisely why I wanted them, and I'm glad to report that they are doing precisely that for which I bought them.
And so to work.