Good morning from a basement full of water. It began to rain softly around ten-thirty last night, just after I had come in from a last ramble in the dark with Dora, and then, sometime in the night, it began to rain hard. The sump pump, which was new last year or maybe the year before, declined to cope with this deluge. So my husband's day has begun with a trip to Lowes to rent a pump, which is gurgling away beneath my feet, while the house smells like the inside of the grave.
In a little while I'll go out in what I hope are the leftovers of rain to walk the dog, then settle down to a morning's work. There are emails to answer, essays to write, and Holinshed's Chronicles to read, among other things.
I have read, today so far, Genesis 7-8, Psalm 4, Matthew 4, and Imitation of Christ Book I Chapter 4. I've also begun the Saint Andrew Christmas Novena, which I love.
Wearing:
Continuing my rotation of outfits, not repeating anything two days in a row, here's my Wool& Sierra dress, with my long-sleeved Icebreaker tee tied over. I like the tee-tied-over look in general, but in colder weather, I really want the tee to have long sleeves, because I've found that I don't like this look with a cardigan. It just starts to look too cluttered and makeshift. So I am happy to have a second long-sleeved merino tee, to add to a Patagonia navy one that I bought secondhand last year. I think Sierra works especially well as a "skirt," thanks to the heavier knit.
Old synthetic leggings, bought at Ross years ago, plus Xero Oswegos. The house is really cold right now, since the basement door is open --- I begin to wonder whether the furnace pilot got knocked out, too. Drag, if so. Good thing I have wooly layers to keep warm in.
***
It's the last day of November, so here's a quick look back, for my own edification if nothing else, at outfits I especially liked in the last month and want to remember.
This shot was taken at the end of October, but I did wear this exact outfit while in Steubenville, and it was a favorite for the month.
This is a sampling of favorites, anyway. Day to day, I think my outfits were okay, but it's good to cast an eye back over the month for combinations you particularly want to repeat.
I am really happy about that redyed cranberry-red cardigan, for example, not least because it will make my Christmas outfit. I don't need to buy a Christmas dress. I can turn literally any dress I own into a Christmas dress simply by adding that cardigan, with maybe a festive brooch. Holidays are such a trigger for impulse-buying new clothes: you feel you want to treat yourself, or you simply feel you want to look extra-special, OR having a new dress for Christmas or Easter is such an ingrained tradition in your life that you can't imagine not buying one.
And as always, there's not actually anything wrong with having a new dress to mark a holiday. Holidays can be good pegs for making purchases, especially if what you're purchasing isn't a one-wear-and-done proposition, like a dress with snowmen or Christmas trees all over it.
But it's also nice to contemplate that you don't have to buy a new dress, just because a holiday is coming --- that in fact you can look and feel extra special in a combination of items you already own, which you can put together in a way that nobody's ever seen. I have a few rather luxe scarves hanging out in my closet that don't get much wear: they could go with my cranberry cardigan and whatever dress I decide on. Sierra and Audrey are frontrunners, though Maggie is a possibility as well, with boots. I have pretty brooches, also underutilized (my husband loves to give me both Mary statues and brooches for my birthday, with the result that I have more than I strictly need of both those categories). I can give a little more time and attention to my hair than I normally do --- so often when I don't like how I look in an outfit, it's not actually the outfit, but my hair. I don't ever truly know what to do with it, especially as I don't want to cut it short, but in any event, I can bother to style it a little more for a holiday, which delivers as much bang for the buck as a new dress would do, if not more.
The furnace pilot is in fact out, so I'll be adding a scarf, at least, to my current ensemble.
LATER:
Here's a neighborhood creek, normally just a trickle, photographed on our walk this morning.
Also, my mother knit me this mohair scarf for either Christmas or my birthday many years ago, and I did add it to my outfit, to keep my neck warm in the chilly house.
Here I am looking kind of old and tired, which is pretty much how I'm feeling.
LATER STILL:
The HVAC guy has come, so we have heat again and a working sump pump. Also, in a cabinet I found two spools of thin grosgrain ribbon, one purple and one pink, which I used to decorate white candles for Advent some years ago. Having tried out a ribbon as a belt recently, I was excited to find these and contemplate possibilities. The purple is a real, true, deep purple that won't look so good on my marine-blue Maggie, but should show up okay on my black-heather Audrey dress, as well as my Sierra. The pink will just be generally useful --- another way to fancy up my dresses for springtime.