Nasturtiums on the patio --- I can't ever grow them successfully where I am, because the summer gets too hot. That is, they grow fine from seed and are very vigorous, but burn up as soon as the heat sets in. These, on the other hand, in various pots around the perimeter of the mountain house, are flourishing.
Late yesterday afternoon, after I'd gotten here and she had come back from her visit to her mother, we went to the Pitillo Family Nature Preserve, a property owned and maintained by a colleague of Marly's parents at Western Carolina University --- Dr. Pitillo is in his nineties, but he met us as we walked over the creek bridge to the nature trail and took us on a guided tour of what's growing and blooming in his mountainside woods. We hadn't expected to run into him, but it was a delightful meeting.
We stayed up late last night talking --- it's been a long time since I last had a proper girls' slumber party, but that's what this was. Today Marly is out hacking back weeds around the foundation of the house, and I'm supposedly working on this Sonnez Les Matines essay, but really I'm just trying to wake up. Later on we'll go in Cashiers and Highlands and hit the fancy thrift store, but I'm perfectly happy to sit here at the table and look at the trees outside for a long time.
As I might have mentioned before, I didn't bother to assemble a travel capsule for this trip. Somehow I just couldn't bring myself to make decisions, and/or didn't have the time and energy for planning that kind of thing. Fortunately, again, my core wardrobe is relatively small, so I just packed it all: all eight dresses, plus the same pullover and cardigan I took to Norway, plus the alpaca cardigan I was wearing yesterday. One pair of leggings --- my navy Allbirds merino-blend pair, which go with everything, and which I doubt I'll need at all once I'm off the mountain. I'm wearing them now, but I might well take them off before we go out, because the daytime weather's still very warm and mild. All of this, with underwear and toiletries, fit in my carry-on backpack, but I needed an extra tote bag for my shoes, and had to stick my diffuser, which I opted to bring since I'm going places where I need to look nice, in my daypack with my books. So this really isn't traveling light, and I find that, not having thought intensively through my outfits, that I'm a little anxious about what I'm going to wear, at least to go out to these various events in Memphis. BUT I do know I can make good outfits with what I have, so I'm telling myself to relax.
Here's me trying to get some selfies on the stairs outside my room. At least you can see everything I have on: my Willow dress, for her fourth September wear, plus my merino-blend green pullover (a staple of the Norway trip), blue Allbirds leggings, and Birk Rosemeads, which I threw into the bag at the last minute, because why not?
Bookstore where we also found some things:
