Peony and wood iris: the Slow Reveal.
The ravine behind the gym, looking like summer. When I went away last Wednesday, the leaves were just unfurling. Three weeks ago, it was delicate threads of redbud and dogwood against the bare trees. How fast the season turns . . . and how good it feels. The time will come (soon enough) when I'm sick of summer, but right now the prospect of it is a balm.
Last night we walked over to the pub to resume our Thursday night ritual, which we'd given up for Lent. Our friends Clark and Christine met us there, and a good time was had. It was just so lovely to be out in the warm evening, everything alive and good, and to sit talking over beer and Barbadian brisket for a couple of hours while the Trivia Night game went on around us. After that I came home and took Dora for a stroll around the neighborhood in the dark --- also insanely pleasant at this time of year.
Still plugging away at this copy editing, which I want to try to finish today. And I need to find another walking pilgrimage! I find that I won't walk anything like five miles a day, or even three, if I don't have some compelling reason.
Writing back and forth with a younger, brilliant writer friend about the difficulty of getting going again after finishing a major project. Until she wrote me about whether or not it was normal to be unable to get going again on something serious --- restless mind, but nothing is really satisfying its restlessness, nothing is taking off in the aftermath of the big project --- I hadn't quite realized just how intensely I was experiencing the same thing. Say what you will about the evils of social media, this kind of thing is life-giving. It would be too easy to keep on struggling in isolation otherwise, not realizing that this place in the "creative life," for lack of a better thing to call it, is a normal place to be.
And it is good to know that there's somebody else out there in a waning phase, when virtually everybody you know seems to be cranking it out and publishing it as fast as they can breathe. I've sent out --- three? --- poetry submissions this year? Maybe two. I've had a few things accepted, which is something, including one little poem, an early sapphics experiment, that I liked but thought I'd never place. So that is something for sure. Still, I'm glad to be not alone in this particular cycle.
Wearing today:
Sweet Willow pulls into second place, to tie with Maggie and Fiona. Wearing with this old Talbots sweatshirt hoodie, which my mother gave me for my birthday or Christmas some years ago --- it's a poly-cotton blend, not ideal, but oh well, I own it and I like the color. I especially like this heathered aqua with the soft periwinkle of the dress. Next year's goal might be to move along everything that's not a natural fiber, to concentrate on wool and linen (and a little cotton), but that is not this year's goal. This year's goal is 365 days in wool --- 111 down, 254 to go.
Also wearing this old, beat-up, thrifted Birk Floridas, because there they were when I got up, and I put my feet in them. I might put on my Balis to walk, because the ankle strap means they stay on better.
My plan for the day is to walk the dog, work on my copy editing, wash my hair and, eventually, like around 4, leave for the Abbey. Today is Founders Day, and there's a special Solemn Vespers with a reception after --- and then I think there's some kind of bluegrass jam session on campus that includes faculty, students, and at least one monk. We'd kind of like to drop in for that. I will wear something else for the evening, because Willow is just a little short, as she comes, to wear for church, and a little too casual for a Founders Day reception. I could opt for a skirt with Willow, but I think I'll feel more confident in a dress, probably Maggie, and sandals --- the perfect "nice but not too dressy" outfit.
I think of Willow currently as kind of the equivalent of shorts. I feel better in a dress than I do in actual shorts, and not that I couldn't dress this dress up a little, but . . . yeah, really, especially in the summer she's a play dress. She's flirty and fun, and her color is so cool and fresh that even on a warm day, she's comfortable to wear outside.
Not really a great selfie, but I'm very happy with the colors I'm wearing. And now the day awaits.
LATER:
I've kept saying how much I was looking forward to my new Francis skirt from Wool& --- and I still am. But I'm going to have to enjoy looking forward to it for longer, because the shipping date has been pushed back to the first or second week of June.
It's not their fault. They're a good company. Their customer service is unparalleled. But I'm still bummed, because I'd been looking forward to a new thing, and to wearing these tops that I've been saving to wear with a Wool& skirt (because my challenge this year is Wool& every day, though I could flex it to mean just something wool every day . . .).
They have sent out a $15 discount gift code as a consolation, which I appreciate. This does make me want to pull the trigger on something else new, though really and truly, I'm not sure what I strictly need. There are a lot of things I have my eye on, but how to decide? At this point, too, it would really be a matter of the fun of a new dress, not filling a gaping hole in my wardrobe, which is honestly wholly sufficient as it is. Yes, yes, more things would be fun, because when aren't more things fun (this might not be a rhetorical question, but let's pretend that it is)? But do I really NEED another thing? Or do I simply feel that I owe myself a prize?
Meanwhile, shortly I am going to change into something for the evening, so stay tuned.
ET VOILA:
I decided to go for Audrey, to induct her into the April 4-wears club. It's a great afternoon for a long, silky, flowy, easy dress, and a great afternoon for a linen shirt, too. I actually had a couple of button shirts out to try, but outboxed the other --- it's been in and out of the outbox, but despite my love for the color (a beautiful duck-egg blue), I've just decided that overall, the shirt doesn't flatter me or work as a "shacket" very well. No matter how many times I try it on, the shape still doesn't flatter me, even with the longer line of this dress. Meanwhile, I love linen, and I've been looking for more opportunities to wear this shirt I bought on Poshmark several months ago.
The drape is so fluid, the line is longer and slimmer, the pale-blue color makes a lovely contrast with my smudgy "black-heather" dress (while not matching my shoes, also a pale contrast with my lowest hem). I feel put together, but not too dressy.
And now I've got to crate the dog and get ready to go.