Laurels and tree-shadows on Jane and Steve's house next door. It's 38F outside right now, at about a quarter to nine in the morning --- brisk, but not freezing. For most of this week the days should continue sunny, no rain in the forecast till Friday, with frosty temperatures at night and pleasantly cool highs during the day. A nice week, in other words, for dog-walking, housework, writing and reading, not to mention getting dressed --- which of course we'll talk about more as we move farther down the page.
Today my to-do list involves
*starting to read my MFA student's second draft and make revision notes
*the one remainder of next week's Sun essays
*some kind of poetry exercise, because of all the writing I've been doing, I haven't been writing any poems
*laundry --- upstairs sheets and towels
*walking the dog (of course --- when does my day not involve walking the dog?)
*some reps with weights, after a couple of days off
*making turkey soup
I'm looking forward to our weekend houseguests, S and D, who will be making a tour of the Southeast, it seems, visiting friends in South Carolina, then up our way. The house is quiet right now without die kinder, who got on the plane after midnight last night, and are consequently probably not having the school day of their dreams today. We had a good time at dinner, then in the car going to the airport listened to a couple of songs by a Slovenian band called Laibach, who did . . . bizarrely . . . an entire cover album of The Sound of Music. And when I say bizarrely, I mean that you wouldn't have dreamed that songs like "Eidelweiss" and "My Favorite Things" could sound menacing --- yet they do. Hannibal Lector Sings Rodgers and Hammerstein! It's weird, but also hilarious. (Oh yeah, also, the band got invited to give a concert in North Korea, which is additionally weird, like a whole other layer of bizarro cake). Anyway, all that energy got out of our car and disappeared into the airport, and it's nice to have some more company on the horizon, to keep me from feeling too down.
Wearing:
*Ocean Teal Willow, yet another favorite dress. They're all favorites.
*Thrifted Peruvian Connection alpaca cardigan. I love this aqua against the brighter teal dress --- the tonal layering feels so nice. The buttons have all fallen off the cardigan, but then I was wearing it as an open-front/drape cardigan anyway, so it's fine.
*Thrifted bamboo/cotton patterned leggings, redyed this herbal/earthy green. I love this shade of green with the teal, and the way the dyeing has muted the marbled pattern, which really used to announce itself on a white background. This way it looks more subtle, and I don't mind it. The whole effect, too, is a much more toned-down contrast with whatever else I'm wearing, which I prefer.
*Xero Tari boots, bought in the summer of 2022 (when I was putatively doing a no-buy year, but let's don't rehash all that)
*Redyed wool scarf that once belonged to my grandmother.
*Darn Tough Socks
*Thrifted teal cashmere-silk-merino-blend tank, repeated from yesterday as a base layer. What was I thinking, putting this tank up for sale? I'm so glad I took it down and kept it. It's thin and light and absolutely the perfect thing under a dress on a chillier day.
All this feels really good for a Monday. My husband remarks that he likes my "elf boots."
I'm looking forward to my little influx of additional clothes this week --- hoping things fit the way I anticipate! Today's outfit reminds me that I love wearing my wool dresses just as they come, but I also enjoy the thought of varying them up with different kinds of layers, especially pinafores. That will be a whole new level of play, assuming things fit and look the way I want them to. (If not, up they go on Poshmark . . .).
And because I need to remind myself that I do in fact worship the living God and not my clothing, these are my prayer intentions for the day, for which I offer all that I do:
*A, with threatened miscarriage which looks like happening
*All my too-many friends with cancer, including S, C, R, another S, and K
*All my children, because when do I not pray for them?
*A friend's distressing family situation
*Yet another S and her young son, who need to flee an abusive relationship (a friend local to them is helping them --- at a great remove, all I can do is pray)
My husband wants to walk the dog with me this morning, so I had better go brush my teeth and put my coat on.
LATER:
Walk taken (nice and long, almost an hour), lunch eaten, book read. Which book, though? This time, it's Fr. Aidan Nichols' Sigrid Undset: Reader of Hearts, which I very much want to finish before I forget the whole beginning. Later I will read another installment of The Peregrine.
Our walk began chilly, but by the end I was almost too warm, in the ensemble described above with the addition of my thrifted L.L. Bean Goretex outer shell coat. I love that coat and will get lots of wear out of it this winter --- you can layer more or less under it, as conditions warrant, but the coat itself is quite light, just blocking wind and rain without a lot of extra insulation. It probably wouldn't be enough coat for a colder climate, but for our conditions here, it's perfect. As it is, I probably did not need the extra tank underneath, but it's on, and I'm not taking it off. I have knocked the heat down for the day, which I'd have done anyway --- the house gets chilly, but I want to be more sparing with the natural gas, so before too long I imagine I'll be glad I have the tank on. And I'm so glad I failed to sell it. Especially with some of the items I have coming, I think I will get far more wear out of this tank than I had previously imagined.
I am considering reselling the Birkenstock Mary Janes I bought recently. They're lovely shoes, in virtually new condition, but I'm just not sure I'm going to wear them. They don't look quite as I had envisioned, and although it's true that I could use a more waterproof pair of non-boot shoes for the winter, I'm not convinced that these are the right ones. I find myself still reaching for my Birk Madeiras instead, even though the Madeiras are fairly beat up. And nine times out of ten, I just wear boots. So I doubt I'd replace the Mary Janes --- honestly, I have enough shoes. It would just be nice to pass them along, and to offset some of the thrift purchases I've made lately with a sale. I've reshared a bunch of items in my online closet, too, because it would be nice to have money coming in via that portal for a change (granted, it's been nice to have some money coming in via other portals, and to take advantage of the opportunity to buy some more clothes --- which after years of self-denial and the attendant reactive thrift shopping still feels weird, in the way that letting yourself eat perfectly normal things after years of restrictive dieting feels weird and possibly wrong . . .).
OK, about to gird myself for an afternoon's work.
LATER STILL:
*I've written 650-ish words of fiction.
*I've begun my Sun essay (no matter what I'm writing about, half the time I end up writing about Yvor Winters, because he had Opinions About Literature).
*I've read a little of this MFA thesis and started making notes --- probably need to pick up the pace, though.
*The house has cooled off, and I'm glad I'm wearing that base-layer tank.
*I've stripped beds upstairs, and laundry is in the dryer.
*I did re-list the Birk Mary Janes, with some reluctance --- not because I actually like them better than I thought, but because I wish I liked them better than I thought. They really do need to go to somebody else. Among other things, I think I could have used a 39 in that shoe, not a 40 --- I can wear either size, and in some styles 40 seems better, but not in this one. But they're beautiful and in excellent condition, so I hope somebody snaps them up soon.
*I've done some arms, upper-back, and knee exercises. Feeling stiff and sore today, though, as a knock-on from exercise a couple of days ago, and maybe also because it's chilly.
I'll need to take Dora for another little neighborhood spin in a minute, and also start thinking about supper. The day has flown by, even though I don't feel that I've worked that hard or done that much.
OH ALSO:
I did a thing, as they say. I've had a thrifted infinity scarf in a nice blue print for years --- no idea what the fiber content is, though it feels possibly like some kind of linen blend. Anyway, I love the print and keep putting it on (most recently here), but then I take it off again. I just don't love the big pillowy scarf action somehow. Even when that was really in, I always found myself not keeping a scarf on. So often, it was the one thing I took off before I went out the door.
So last night it came to me: I don't like infinity scarves. Granted, they seem to have had their day anyway, but that kind of big puffy scarf look is one that I've tried to love and have not loved that much. The real bolt of inspiration came as I was holding that scarf and thinking, I wish this were just a normal scarf, because I think I'd really like it. It came to me, further, that there was a pair of sewing scissors in the bathroom.
Applaud, everyone, the great hack maneuver which I then enacted: I cut the scarf at the seam where it was sewn in a circle, and now it's not a circle anymore. It's just a scarf.
I don't have a photo, but I think I'll resolve to wear it tomorrow. I find that I like wearing scarves a lot more than I thought, when I wear them the way I'm wearing this one today. They look better, and not like one thing too much. I think --- thanks to this basic revelation about how I don't and do like to wear them --- that this could very well be my Scarf Girl Winter. Wait and see.