God's Grandeur
by Gerard Manley Hopkins
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
***********
Well, after that, there's really not much to say, is there? Drinking coffee in the quiet, but about to get dressed and walk the dog in the rain before Mass.
Wearing:
What made you buy the red linen skirt, Sally?
Oh, you know . . . reasons. Like Pentecost, for example.
Anyway, the secondhand red linen skirt with Maggie T masquerading as a top, thrifted Birks, thrifted linen duster coat.
Scrunching my hair, which looked good yesterday after I washed it. And off we go!
LATER:
Well, we didn't go very far before the heavens opened up, and I had to change.
Also, I was just cold. So right before we left for Mass, it was off with the linen, on with more wool and alpaca. I did add my red shoes, though, to keep it liturgical. And at least Maggie T was dry and warm throughout.
My new carry-on-backpack is here, so I think I'll play around this afternoon with packing. Stay tuned!
PACKING SUDOKU!
I'll start with a shot of the whole backpack, pretty much packed. At this stage it still has some discretionary room, though I'd also forgotten to put in socks, which (when I did stuff them in) took up a bit of that room. Still, packed with most of my travel capsule (absent things that will be on my body), it zips easily and isn't strained.
Some features:
A roomy pocket for your laptop and charger, so that they ride right against your back.
--- but easy to access.
Meanwhile, in the base of the backpack is a shoe pocket:
I wasn't sure how roomy it would be, but reader: it's roomy. Here are my hiking boots:
As you can see, there's room to spare in this pocket for another pair of shoes as well:
These tucked right in on top of my boots, and the whole thing zipped with no problem. The question, though: where are they, in relation to, like, the whole rest of the pack?
Answer:
There they are! Ostensibly taking up the entire interior! But wait!
Here's what fit into the pack, under that shoe pocket: three dresses (I'm wearing the fourth); two pairs of leggings, one pair of merino tights, one sweater (the other one will go in my purse for me to put on if I need it, as will my pashmina and a pair of socks), and a supply of underwear. It zipped up just fine, as shown in the first photo. I then unzipped the top and stuffed in some more socks.
I could probably roll things smaller, but this works. This is the travel capsule I'd sketched out ---
--- minus what I'd be wearing and carrying in my purse. The one thing that's missing is my coat, which I'll either stuff in the pack somehow or into my purse, which is fairly capacious.
Front pockets will hold toiletries in travel-sized bottles. Fortunately I use my hair products, especially, in tiny increments anyway.
This is a very cleverly designed travel pack, and at roughly $50 was a lot less expensive than I had feared such a thing would be. Again, this is the first piece of luggage that wasn't a daypack, or a laundry basket, or somebody else's cast-off, that I have owned in the last twenty years. And I'm happy with it.
I know I'll fiddle more with my packing, but it's good to know that my travel capsule will fit in it. Just today I was reading about someone else's lost-luggage nightmare --- they actually had to fly somewhere to get it, because the airline wouldn't send it. They only were able to find it at all because they'd put a tracker on it. To this I say: no, thank you. I will take a tiny wardrobe and carry it on my back and have it.
And really, this is not such a tiny wardrobe. We'll be gone thirteen days, inclusive of travel. I can make at least sixteen outfits out of what you see in that capsule photo. I think I'll be fine, honestly.
I also think I can probably fit in my Xero Cassies, too, for a fun shoe alternative. I won't actually be taking the red leggings, since they're cotton --- I'm subbing in my newly cut-off Snag Silver Lining merino tights (which I wound up wearing today, as it happens), which will both take up less room in the pack and not clash with red shoes. The red shoes are light and will pack really flat --- I could possibly slip them in one of those front pockets.
This will continue to be Sudoku. What if I wore my Bali sandals (socks for on the plane when I take them off) --- that would give me enough room in the shoe pocket to stuff in my coat, maybe? Then my Oswegos and/or Cassies could just go in the body of the pack, because they're light and flat. Or in the laptop pocket, which has some extra room . . .
Prepare for two and a half more weeks of this.
***Here is my packing list, if anybody has any brilliant ideas. I've already thought of things I left out, but this pack does have a remarkable amount of space. And I can and will opt to wear at least some bulkier things, like my Birk Balis, on the plane, to free up more room in the pack.