A new day, soft and overcast again, warm but not too hot. Rain keeps appearing in the forecast several days in advance, but by the time the day comes, it changes to oops, no, sorry, probably not. I need to remember to go out and spray the garden down with the hose.
Not much on today, just the usual work.
Still running my eye over my style diary album for this year, mostly because that's kind of a mindless thing to do while I drink my morning coffee. It's interesting to look back over the last few months and track the fluctuations of the weather, as reflected in my clothing choices. We had a lot of warm days in January and February, though a generous selection of cold days, too. It strikes me, especially with the clarity of hindsight, that I do a lot better with warm-weather outfits than with cold-weather ones. Part of this, I think, is that for years I just wore jeans and sweaters when it was cold. I didn't look great then, either, but that was a basic, reliable formula. Now I don't really want to wear jeans anymore --- I've passed along my last pair. They don't do much for my late-50s-model body, and they don't feel good. But to make dresses work in cold weather remains something of a challenge.
I think what I really need to do next fall is concentrate my clothing budget on things like leggings. I've been wearing old pairs of leggings, a couple of which, including my trustiest navy leggings, are starting to wear out. I really could wear navy leggings for days on end, with many outfits, so that would be a good place to start, in terms of investing in some better wool pieces that could be worn multiple days without needing a wash. Charcoal gray would be another color that would serve me well. I might also consider replacing my cheap old tall boots with more of an investment pair, that would be better for walking. I love my Tari boots and my hikers, and will obviously continue to wear them through (I hope) many winters to come. But a tall boot always looks so good --- something like this, for example, would be great to cruise Ebay for next fall. Or this, but in tan. It's just so easy to look good in a taller boot while keeping your legs and feet warm. I think my budget for the fall would probably be better spent on things like that than on a fall/winter dress, since I will have --- in fact, already have --- plenty of dresses to get me through. The thing is to have the right details to make them good to wear in winter. I'm getting better at that, but a look back at my cold-weather choices makes clear to me that that's where I should focus attention for the next round of that season.
As I noted yesterday, too, I have enough cardigans, but could use a couple of cropped pullover sweaters, preferably in wool, of course, to winterize my dresses. As I'm moving out of wearing warm layers, it's useful, I think, to reflect on what's been good for me, what I have enough of, what I'm still kind of missing and can focus on tracking down secondhand. I don't need more core wardrobe pieces. Once my new dress arrives, I will have nine dresses to work with, including yesterday's cotton Pact dress. What I can still use are things to work with those nine dresses, to make them really pull their weight for me in the winter as well as the summer.
BUT it's lovely and warm now! My favorite weather! I love sandals --- truly, I feel, and think I look, my best in open-toed shoes. And it's still not quite so hot that I can't wear some light layers. I might take advantage of that today, to wear some item that gets overlooked . . .
Aaaaaand wearing today:
WORK BREAK:
I can report that walking 3 miles in 80F temperatures in two light layers of wool is doable and not unpleasant. Toward the end I did feel warm, but not unduly so --- and I did sweat, which wearing sleeves of any kind makes me notice. I haven't worn any kind of deodorant or anti-perspirant regularly for over ten years (flirted some with various no-aluminum and natural brands, but meh), so I do sweat, but thus far I can't detect any particular smell. And I do smell sweat smells when I'm wearing them, as evidenced by the armpit smell in my secondhand blue merino cardigan a few months back --- a situation finally resolved by soaking in undiluted vinegar, drying in sunlight, and spritzing the pits again with hand sanitizer. Anyway, I'm reminded why I love sleeveless dresses in the summer. BUT today's outfit is holding up all right, and I'm pretty comfortable in it overall.
It was a good walk, especially in that we mostly had the greenway trail to ourselves. That's the advantage of going out a little later and walking when the day has heated up. All the earlybirds have been and gone. We'll see how this habit sustains itself in the real heat of summer --- I do keep thinking that while we obviously don't want heatstroke for either Dora or me, it's not bad for us to practice walking in heat, to build up our tolerance, so that we're not just slain by temperatures on the hiking trail in the summer.
Also: not my first snake sighting of the season, by any means (that was in February, thank you very much), but the first snake photo I've taken this year:
This is not actually a big black snake, as black snakes go. I would have liked a closer shot, because it was a very handsome specimen, but I had Dora with me, and I didn't particularly want either of us to mix it up with this snake. Black snakes are non-venomous (and they kill copperheads, which is one more reason to be glad to see them), but they will not hesitate to bite. So we observed it from a respectful distance and went merrily on our way, non-bitten.
The other day I saw, but couldn't photograph in time, what I think was a king snake, or else possibly a northern water snake, hustling across the greenway and down the bank. It was moving too fast for me to get a good look, even, to be able to remember it enough to identify it, but anyway, it was the first larger snake I've seen this year.
MUCH LATER:
Took another walk with Dora around the park loop --- a shorty, only about 20 minutes, but in the sun and relative heat of late afternoon. Still feeling pretty good in today's outfit.
Also very impatient for the arrival of my new dress. I will need to train myself, AGAIN, not to need these dopamine hits! But I am excited to have one more summer-friendly option. This one has sleeves, but fairly loose ones, so should do well in terms of air flow in the heat. I HOPE, anyway. We'll see how it fits. So far my gambles in styles I thought I didn't like have worked out pretty well . . .
LAST THING:
Nighttime thunderstorms and rain. I went out and pruned the curbside forsythias after we'd watched a Miss Marple episode, and in a break between storm systems, but now it's coming down again. Dora and I won't get our late-night walk, but we've done 4+ miles today, so I think we're okay.