Holy Week: the piercing beauty of the springtime, the piercing sorrow of the Passion. It's a juxtaposition that moves me every year. Here's our old apple tree crowned in glory, which is both wholly its own and wholly the glory of its maker.
I will probably be fairly quiet-ish this week, though I won't stop posting altogether. But it is a busy week, with choir, liturgies, confession, and a few projects to tie off before the Triduum begins in earnest.
Only 7 miles left to walk in my Walsingham pilgrimage.
More signs of life in the garden:
Thyme (mostly lemon thyme) and creeping plox covering one side of the old tree stump. A little coreopsis there as well.
Hard to see because of the brush on the other side of the fence --- I tend to throw a lot of garden cuttings over the fence to compost down under the mulberries and forsythias --- but here leaf buds are swelling on the grapevine. I always worry that it's not going to come through the winter, but so far it has. We haven't had grapes yet, but this is its third summer, so maybe?
Fresh lovely blackberry leaves on the fence. I've been working assiduously to prune and train these canes to grow on the chain-link fence. I'm hoping to get a decent berry crop this year, with the plants that were new last year producing for the first time (I hope). I have 7 blackberry vines at this writing and could add more, though what I hope is that these existing ones are just going to grow, like a lot, and fill up the available fence space. They're on their way now.
You can see the wood sorrel, too, in the background here. I have a LOT of wood sorrel. Apparently you can make wine from the flowers, though I don't have time this week to try.
Meanwhile, my five blueberry bushes have all leafed out and are on their way as well.
And in just a couple of weeks I can put in the summer garden: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, more herbs and flowers. I can't wait to sow zinnias, cosmos, and sunflowers.
But for now it's Holy Week, and I have things to concentrate on.
What I'm wearing for it (today, anyway):
I might lose the leggings as the day progresses, but: Sierra, my constant favorite, with thrifted purple cotton cardigan (Eddie Bauer, which I got for 25 cents), thrifted bamboo-cotton marble-pattern leggings, and thrifted Birkenstock Bali sandals. I love the soft colors and the simplicity, which will serve me for dog-walking, work, and choir practice tonight.
Hair in a ponytail for now, though I'll wash it midway through the day, to be ready for tomorrow's Chrism Mass. I'll have to leave the house by 8 to be there by 9, so the more I can do today, so that in the morning I can just get up and throw on my clothes, the better.
Weather this week is pretty warm: high of almost 70F today, but 80F tomorrow. By Saturday and the Easter Vigil it will have cooled off again significantly, with rain setting in, so that I'm glad I'm planning to wear a maxi skirt over a dress for the Vigil. I can be fairly layered and warm, without looking too wintry. Something like this, basically, though I might opt to wear my Willow as a top instead of Maggie. Or possibly Fiona. Either of those dresses would provide springlike color that would harmonize with the colors in the floral maxi skirt, but also some extra warmth, since they have longer sleeves.
I did order, from Poshmark, another J.Jill linen duster cardigan like the champagne-y/beige one I already have, only in a dark slaty blue. I love that former cardigan and wear it a lot, especially as the weather warms up --- it's the perfect cool top layer when you need a top layer without a lot of weight. And as much blue as I wear, I don't have that many blue cardigans. I was thinking I might wear it with my Easter outfit, but also as a professional-looking topper for this conference the next weekend, over whatever dress I decide to wear. The temptation, of course, is to buy a new dress, but I truly don't need a new dress, just the right accessories for the dresses I already have. A blue cardigan in this shimmery linen blend will go with truly literally everything in my closet, and I'm excited to get it.
I also have received my crop tank from Kosher Casuals, which looks as though it will match my Audrey dress almost perfectly. The bra panels, in their various colors, are nice, and I'm sure I'll get use out of them as well, but this is exactly what I've been needing to be able to wear Audrey in church without a scarf to cover the neckline. While the crew neckline isn't totally my favorite, it will, in certain contexts, let me feel a lot less self-conscious, while in other contexts I can wear the dress just as she comes. I plan, in fact, to wear Audrey with the champagne-y/beige linen duster cardigan for the Chrism Mass tomorrow, and this crop top will be perfect for that. Sometimes you just really don't want to call attention to the fact that you are covering your decolletage . . .
At any rate, it's good to have options. I really think you can't have too many cardigans and top layers and accessories, especially if you do keep your number of core pieces (i.e., dresses) to a fairly hard limit. This means that you can dress for any occasion without getting bored OR having so many core-piece options that you can't choose. Each dress, in itself, becomes like a capsule with its constellation of accessories (which also go with other dresses) that make it appropriate for whatever you need to do. This, for me, feels more flexible and interesting than having my wardrobe be one single capsule.
LATER:
Walked 3.28 miles this morning, an even 8K steps. Will walk again in the afternoon and evening, but for now, there's work to do.
LATE AFTERNOON:
It's RAINING. But I walked to the post office, using the time to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet, so that brings me to 4.2 pilgrimage miles today.
I've also written one Sun essay and sent in my Seren essay for the Benedict XVI Institute.
Also, I haven't been recording my reading on Mondays. Here's the 2023 rundown:
Novels
Offshore, Penelope Fitzgerald
Aiding and Abetting, Muriel Spark
Hard Times
Nicholas Nickleby
Our Mutual Friend
Dombey and Son
Martin Chuzzlewit
Barnaby Rudge (in progress), all Mr. C. Dickens, obviously
Nonfiction
Still pecking away at Understanding Poetry, Brooks & Warren
Also various research, all the time, mostly online, but involving things like Holinshed's Chronicles and the Middle French verse of Jean Froissart.
Poetry
Seren of the Wildwood, Marly Youmans, most recently and with the most attention.
I've begun Jane Scharl's verse play, Sonnez les Matines, and need to pick it up again.
I'm obviously reading poems all the time, to write about them for the Sun --- today, the first 18 lines of the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.
Bible and Spiritual Reading
I've really fallen off the wagon, ironically, with my Bible-in-a-Year, but have been reading the daily Mass readings, which I wanted to follow in Lent.
Now fiddling around with supper, which I'm not really hungry for, having eaten scrambled eggs for a late lunch not that long ago. My husband has a meeting tonight, so I might just suggest to him that he either picks something up or else plans on scrambled eggs when he gets home. I've got choir at 7:30, so won't be home until close to 10.
Then up again in the morning and out, to be at the Cathedral by 9. Maybe I should eat? I dunno. Trying to remember whether I took my vitamins this morning, too . . . already it's looking like that kind of week. Good, but a lot. A lot, but good.