Our Lady, awash in sun, roses, and lily fronds.
Meanwhile, THIS has happened, right through the middle of my thyme garden:
Somebody has made him- or herself at home under my stump, bulldozing right through the lemon thyme to make a front walk.
Here are some of the tomatoes I planted the other day, along the fence:
They look so tiny and neat just now . . . I like taking these progress photos, because every year that I plant a vegetable garden, the ensuing chaos always takes me by surprise. These, I hope, won't be quite so chaotic: I planted them along the fence so that I could tie them up as they grow.
Some peppers in their containers:
Dill, looking frilly and pretty and ready to garnish some salmon sometime soon.
Finally, the industrial-vinegar treatment for weed killing seems to work:
Today's agenda:
*walk the dog: check
*order groceries: check
*write Sun essays (I have two due this week, and I can bang them out pretty fast, if I just get going) AFTERNOON UPDATE: one done, one half-done.
*revisit copy-editing notes before sending in. AFTERNOON UPDATE: check
I've lost the thread of my weekly reading report: currently pecking away at Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop. Totally fallen off the Bible-in-a-Year wagon. Feeling so overwhelmed by stuff I have to do that I can't even think about what I might want to do, which includes what I might want to read. Sometimes I feel I'm drowning in what I should be reading, which is a list long enough for several lifetimes. So then I just shut down and watch something silly instead (currently: Sanditon, which is visually gorgeous, even if it's not . . . that much . . . like Jane Austen).
In clothing news . . . I changed out of my Maggie dress and skirt after church yesterday and wore sturdy, tough Sierra for gardening. That brings that dress up to 5 wears in April, tying with both Camellia and Maggie. As I think I noted yesterday, what tracking is showing me this month is that **in our current weather conditions** I'm wearing all six of my dresses in more or less even rotation, with none of them hanging neglected. As the weather warms up, this could change: I might not reach for dresses with 3/4 sleeves once temperatures settle above the 90F mark. Then again, I might. It'll be interesting to see. In mid-80s temps, I've still been pretty comfortable in those dresses. Come high summer, though, I think I'm still far more likely to wear sleeveless options than anything else.
Today's high is supposed to be 66F, which will be lovely.
Wearing:
Weird series of poses, but anyway: Willow joins the 5-wears club for April! Thrifted alpaca cardigan --- I continue to be glad I listened to Marly and bought this item last fall, because I don't know how I'd have gotten through the intervening months without it. Periwinkle and aqua are a favorite color combination of mine, and this whole outfit feels nicely springlike on a coolish day. Thrifted Birk Floridas, because they're so easy to put my feet into when I get up in the morning. Besides, the darker shoe makes a good contrast with my lowest hemline.
Wearing black bike shorts under, because my dress is on the short side, and my day is likely to involve some public movement. I am anxious for my Francis skirt to get here (sigh), because I'm thinking that Willow will make a great tunic top to wear with that skirt, when I want more coverage, but not necessarily the weight of a whole dress-over-a-dress situation.
BUT in the main . . . I'm just so happy that it's Eastertide. I had a good Lent, like really remarkably good, but it feels so exhilarating to be out in the sunshine of the Resurrection again --- not that the Resurrection is ever untrue, or that its sun doesn't shine, even in the deepest shadows, but to go forward into this morning season is so beautiful, and would be so easy to take for granted had we not passed through a season of shadow.
POST-WALK:
Purple vetch in bloom along the greenway trail through town.
Spring vintage-in-progress, all bottled but not sealed. From left to right: 2 bottles violet-redbud-dandelion wine, 2 bottles redbud wine, 2 bottles dandelion wine. The rightmost-but-one bottle of dandelion wine clearly got most of the yeast, which I neglected to strain. It's risen to the top and is still bubbling away. The caps are resting on the bottle mouths, but aren't clamped down to seal them, and I lift each one once or twice a day to let gases escape.
LATER: Maybe sometime this week I'll make clover wine, since I have a LOT of clover blooms right now.
