Hail this beautiful feast, bringing joy, loveliness, and hope in the small of the year.
Last weekend my husband brought me home a little tree with lights for the front porch. I love to see it shining in the early dusks.
Yesterday, in addition to finishing an essay and writing a novel scene, I washed woodwork indoors. Then, inspired by my own burst of energy, I went outside to clean the front door frame and windowframes, which in our damp climate readily mildew. This weekend I'll dig out my wreath form and fashion some kind of wreath for the door. Or maybe first I'll finally get some paint and paint over the scratches, leftovers from an escapade of Dora's in the summer of 2022.
Escapade? Little ME?
Today I need to put in a load of laundry. Then I'm going driving with AK, who hopes to take her driving test soon. That will pretty much devour the day, but she needs the practice time, to continue getting used to my car, in which she will take the test.
Right now: drinking coffee, eating leftover baked oatmeal from yesterday.
We went to Mass last night down the road at St. Michael's, which was lovely, then out to the brewery in Belmont for dinner. Tonight, for the feast day, I'm going to make lamb --- Aldi had it in, and it seemed an appropriately celebratory choice.
Planning to wear blue today for the feast, instead of purple. My husband admired my last-night's outfit and asked where I had gotten my pretty velvety shirt. You know what I said: "Goodwill about ten years ago, then the dress-ups box." I liked that outfit, too, but am going for a different feel today.
Going to wet my hair for a refresh, then put on clothes that give me the feel.
Wearing:
*Wool& Maggie dress (medium long) in Marine Blue (under-layer)
*Thrifted linen-cotton vintage Erika & Co. pinafore (medium)
*Thrifted Peruvian Connection alpaca cardigan
*Snag opaque tights in Burgundy
*Xero Tari boots
Hair still a little damp and gelly here --- I wetted it thoroughly, combed it, smoothed on and scrunched in some fresh gel, and diffused it for a while, mostly on medium heat, hovering the diffuser away from my hair just to get out as much of the water as I could. It will settled down a lot as it finishes air-drying. I'm pretty happy to have hit on this routine, which honestly doesn't take much time --- even less if I just let it dry on its own, but today I need to get moving, to meet AK in Belmont at noon.
I'd been essentially fasting from this pinafore, which I bought just before Advent, because while it contains a lot of colors, purple isn't one of them. But with its hits of blue and rose, it's perfect for a Marian feast day.
The weather is warming up a little again: high of 62F, I think, though it's still in the high 30s at the moment. I'll need a coat to walk the dog, but will probably be fine with this cardigan later on. I might add my indigo wool scarf . . . it's the right color, obviously. And it might be the thing I need to be perfectly comfortable without a coat this afternoon. As it is, I feel very springtime-in-winter, which is how this feast itself feels, the spotless rose blooming unexpectedly in the dark and the cold.
Of course, it's not really that cold, and at the moment it's not at all dark, either. But you know, figuratively speaking, all that is true. Figurative speech is, so often, the most true speech anyway.
At the moment I also feel very much like the cute little old lady I envision myself becoming. I can just be this, and it'll be okay.