Teacups. The blue-and-white ones on the left were wedding presents. The blue-and-white ones on the right I used to visit in the same antique-shop window in Cambridge where I visited the brooch, walking children to school long, long ago. Fun fact: those ones on the right, a Furnival pattern (though one of mine says it's Mason's English Ironstone) that appears in Downton Abbey, as Mrs. Hughes the housekeeper's china. She and Mr. Carson have tea in her room from cups like these. The little multicolored teacup just visible above the rim of the top blue-and-white one is Mason's English Ironstone, a good solid farmhouse china, in a pattern called "Regency." So I guess my taste in china is distinctly below-stairs, but I don't mind. I'd be afraid to use Sèvres if I had it --- or at least I'd find it too fancy for my cottage-level tastes.
And it's not as if I needed any more dishes. I love those teacups, but I hardly ever use them, opting for mugs for tea and coffee instead. Still . . . here is where I'm not a minimalist. I don't care that I don't use them much. They're beautiful. They do in fact spark joy, just being there on the shelf. Of course it helps that they're behind glass doors, so don't accrue the dust of ages unto themselves as much as things do in other parts of the house. I suppose one day we might downsize, and I'll need to thin out the china and disperse it among my children, whom I have fortunately brainwashed into valuing things like old English china, but today is not that day.
Today is the day when I'm eating refrigerator oatmeal with chia seeds and homemade kefir and the last of the figs from our Sunday Abbey picking spree, with a drizzle of the honey the kids brought home from Greece.
I don't often produce photogenic food, but sometimes I do. This photo features dish items I do use all the time: small mismatched bowls from a local pottery collective, my Memphis Arts Moot mug from the faith-and-art conference last spring, and one of a set of 1950s silverplate soup spoons that I love for their heaviness and roundness and the daffodil detail graven into the end of the handle.
They're always tarnished, because I polish silver maybe twice a year, but I use them daily. It just feels good to eat with them. I used to have more --- twelve, I think, initially, in a bundle I bought in an antique mall in Salt Lake thirty years ago, in a fit of replacing my everyday stainless-steel cutlery with mismatched old plate pieces. I still have many of the old plate pieces, though many, including about half the original number of these spoons, have gotten lost through the years. And I've added more, picking them up in charity shops in England and in thrift and antique stores in Memphis and here. But I still derive great pleasure from setting my table --- even for only two of us --- with pretty things that go together only because they've wound up together in the same house, by accidental design.
Today (not necessarily in the order in which I'll do the things):
*some emails to write
*some essays to write (one, at least)
*some lines of verse to write
*some hair to wash
*some clothes to put on
*one dog to walk
SLIGHTLY LATER:
I have accomplished some of these things. I have washed my hair, and I am wearing clothes.
I might need to change shoes, depending on what the weather does out there. Right now it's cooler, but so humid that you can't really tell how cool it is. There's cloud cover, and it might rain again, in which case I don't want to go out in suede shoes.
But right now I like the color blocking going on in this outfit: redyed Spruce Sierra, with cropped-by-me Woolx blue tee tied over (again: smaller knot + less bulk = much happier me), and plum suede Birk Rosemeads. Nothing matches, but each discrete piece harmonizes with every other piece.
Keeping my drippy hair as far out of the frame as possible, while still showing the outfit. I continue to be happy with the modifications I've made to my dress and tee. This spruce color is just so pretty, on its own as well as with other colors. The lines of this thrifted tee are so much more flattering to my short-torsoed female body without the heavy, high crew neck, boxy sleeves, and extra length of a men's shirt. The blue pops so nicely on the green. The green looks so luxe with the blue. The shirt gives the A-line dress a little more definition, without its needing a belt.
And my feet are happy. Playing ball with Dora in the backyard yesterday afternoon, I managed to step into one of the myriad ant nests that infest that yard and got bitten inside my shoe. I've put some Benadryl gel on the bites, but am thinking I'll give the Birk Madeiras a rest today. The light purple makes a nice frame for my dark skirt, anyway.
I walked 5 miles yesterday, so today will be a shorter walk day, with some indoor exercise to complement the walk. Yesterday's workout was also pretty intense, so I want to try to go longer but easier today. Feeling yesterday's weights in my arms and shoulders and upper back --- which is good, but I'm not out to kill myself. I am seeing some results, especially in my arms, which is very encouraging. My initial goal was to avoid the floppy-old-lady-arm syndrome --- I started lifting small weights casually some months back, and using the resistance band, to try to build some muscle, because I like wearing sleeveless dresses and want to look decent in them. Now that I've stepped up the exercises, trying various ones that I see demonstrated in Instagram reels, things are really happening, and I'm excited about that. Results are motivating. As always, I care far less about weight than I do about strength and ability, because those are the things that will carry me, God willing, into an active, healthy old age. Being skinny would not do that. Being physically strong --- again, God willing --- will.
A closer rear view. This is a nice, forgiving dress! I go back and forth over the question of whether I'd want another Sierra --- not a wholly academic question as this one begins to thin out a little, and to lose its elasticity (because I've worn and washed it hard, that's why). As much as I like the look of the other heavier winter dresses, in French terry and other thicker knits, I'm not sure I'd want a dress with sleeves in this fabric --- most of the year, it's just too hot for that. I wear Sierra in the summer, but even without sleeves she feels hotter than my 3/4-sleeve dresses in a thinner jersey do. BUT she's nice in the transitional seasons with layers, and downright cozy in what cold weather we do have. I think, once this dress really wears out, I'd miss having one in a heavier knit.
But that's not an immediate concern. She hasn't worn out yet, and I look forward to wearing her through the winter with tights and boots and cardigans and pullovers and tees, both over and under. That's a very fun prospect, and one I enjoy dwelling on when I look at my closet. I'm definitely seeing Christmas Day in this dress, to carry me through from breakfast till the big dinner at night, with judicious tweaks to dress her down and then up.
That's months away, though, and in the meantime I have things to do.
MUCH LATER:
Whew. It's been a day. Good, but full of many pursuits.
*Walked the dog 2 miles, then another .89 mile just now
*Worked on some lines of verse
*Sent various emails related to my poetry course, as well as an event I'm trying to set up here later in the fall
*Did 20 minutes of relatively high-intensity exercise
*Finished reading Sonnez Les Matines
*Uploaded and thought about another Poem of the Day, but haven't written anything yet
*Bought some kefir grains
*Made the bed
*Washed dishes
*Lazed about on the porch swing
*Now it's almost time to make dinner. How the days do fly.