Another town shot, on a gray, damp, blustery day. We've got a cooler week on tap, with highs in the low-to-mid 50s Farenheit, aspiring to the low 60s by the weekend. Not awful, by any means, though we did have a freeze warning last night. I don't know what the low was, but tonight's is supposed to be 28F, okay as freezes go. My new plantings should be fine, and in fact will benefit from all the rain and the cooler temperatures, slowing their rate of growth as they adjust to the earth they're in.
Reading update
Novels
Offshore, Penelope Fitzgerald
Aiding and Abetting, Muriel Spark
Hard Times,
Nicholas Nickleby,
Our Mutual Friend,
Dombey and Son,
Martin Chuzzlewit,
Barnaby Rudge (current, still in Chapter 1),
all Dickens
Nonfiction
I have pecked away a little at Brooks & Warren's Understanding Poetry.
Poetry
I wrote last week on Philip Sidney's "Psalm XIII" and the extremely odd Jones Very, for the Sun. Read a little Janet Lewis. Currently reading Marly Youmans' Seren of the Wildwood, which is a remarkable achievement. I have an essay to write on this, too, due by the end of the month, so I am slamming it down like a drink in the desert, and thinking hard.
Bible and Spiritual Reading
I'd fallen way behind last week in my Bible-in-a-Year reading, but picked it up last night: Deuteronomy, Psalms in the 80s, Luke's Gospel, Imitation of Christ, Book 3 (STILL).
I'm looking forward to a couple of readings with Marly in the next week-and-a-bit: this Saturday, 3 p.m., at City Lights Books in Sylva, NC, and a week from Thursday, 7 p.m., at Goldberry Books in Concord, NC.
Wearing today, in a Parade of Old Synthetic Outdoor Stuff:
My Fiona dress, with very old thrifted polarfleece pullover (I've kept it largely because it's purple), plus even OLDER (as in, bought at REI in Salt Lake City, sometime in the years we lived there, 1991-1999) thermal long-john leggings. I can't stress enough how, in the 1990s, these then-new outdoor fabrics were the big miracle: designed to wick moisture and be very light, while still warm. Even now, I won't say that they don't do those things. I won't be buying more of the same, but I will still wear these. The teal long-john bottoms are pretty sprung in terms of stretch, but if I cuff them at the ankle, that takes up a good bit of slack. Wearing with Boody bamboo socks (the very cushiest) and Tari boots, because I just didn't feel like lacing up hiking boots when I got dressed. I might change into hikers for our walk this morning, but I haven't done it yet.
Anyway, this is today's Look4Lent. I should have made that a label or a hashtag . . . You can see more clearly here just how well these long-johns don't fit. If I should happen to go out somewhere other than on a walk, I'll change them, because really. But I like the teals together here. Maybe at some point I'll acquire some Ocean Teal Wool& leggings, although people keep talking about how quickly theirs have worn out, which makes me disinclined to spend $100 on a pair of leggings. Possibly at some point I'll pick up some secondhand WoolX Stellas, which seem to get more reliably good reviews. Not, mind you, that this is any kind of active plan. Aside from my one plunge (the Francis skirt) at the start of Lent, I've stuck to my clothing no-buy. Although yes, I do fantasize periodically about more dresses, I don't have any plan to buy more in the very near future. As summer approaches, I'll take stock. Depending on how much money I'm able to make this spring, I'll take stock. But for now? What I have is fine, thanks.
My husband is leaving to spend the week in Memphis with his mother, who turned 92 at the end of February. So Dora and I will be hanging out, with time on our hands (or paws, as the case may be). I hope we'll get many miles of walking in. As of the end of Saturday, we had walked about 43 miles, which leaves us just under 80 miles to go. Four miles a day, five days a week, seems to be a good average to strike, leaving us a tiny bit of wiggle room between now and Good Friday, which is when I hope to end my virtual pilgrimage. I could finish on Holy Saturday, however. And honestly, wherever I am in this journey (because I could get sick and miss days, for example), we'll just say that maybe I hop a bus if I have to, which would set me down at the start of the mile walk into Walsingham which pilgrims typically do barefoot. At any rate, one way or another, I will end my pilgrimage at my destination, having walked as many consecrated steps as I could in the weeks of Lent.
Places we might pass on our way:
Castle Acre Priory
Thetford Priory
I'll wait till my husband has left before embarking on today's leg of the walk, which probably won't get us anywhere that interesting, though there's undoubtedly some village church to pass on our slow way up from Bury St. Edmunds to Kings Lynn. I'm actually glad it's a chilly, overcast day, because the greenway trail won't be thronged, and I should be able to read Morning Prayer on my phone as I go, without having to manage Dora that closely.
More later, maybe.
NOON UPDATE:
We walked 4.1 miles this morning, in roughly an hour and a half. We can easily make it 5 miles by bedtime.
I hadn't been sure how much energy I'd have this morning, but turns out that after a real Sabbath rest, both Dora and I had plenty of get-up-and-keep-going. She's back in her crate eating her breakfast now, and I'm about to embark on some work, but we'll hit the road again in the afternoon for a couple of shorter legs.
Oh, I did put on the hiking boots and really welcomed the support. I like minimalist shoes, but for any distance on pavement . . . yeah, Birkenstocks win. Here I am, pre-walk, cavorting around the bathroom in them.
The sun has come out, by the way, and it's quite a nice day.
MUCH LATER: New walking record: 6 miles! I still don't know where I actually am on this virtual route. But I'm 6 miles farther along it than I was this time yesterday.