Pro tip: Get yourself some sheets in colors you love, and then when you don't make the bed, it's still a feast for the eyes instead of a mess. These are the cheap cotton-jersey sheets I bought as a second set for this bed, and while the bamboo sheets are luxurious, these feel nice and soft, and the color is so beautiful and peaceful. I did make the bed, right after taking this photo yesterday, because for me that is one of the keys to order in the universe, but I did think it was pretty just as it came. (Dark-blue pillowcases are from the bamboo set --- we just use those king-sized pillows as shams. Teal pillows match the sheets. The greenish-aqua cases are 1) mulberry silk on the left, and 2) on the right, from an older microfiber set that pretty much matches the silk. I want to get some more silk pillowcases in that aqua, but I haven't yet).
It's a gray Saturday, high of about 58F, low of 27. I hope my baby lettuces hang in there. I want to plant up another couple of jugs with more lettuce seed today, and maybe cut back some of the vinca that's become such a mess in the front beds, and also maybe lay out some cardboard and paper grocery bags to start a new bed under my dogwood tree. Long Zoom meeting yesterday afternoon, so I'm feeling quite, quite free to take the weekend off from thinking about the Substack --- especially as I managed to grind out three substantial essays. I do need to finish this book I'm writing on for this review due next week --- I'm about halfway finished with both, but I really need to finish the book before I can finish writing about it.
Anyway, I want to spend some time outside and moving, but also time inside and reading --- but not working! It's been a heavy work week, and I am tired.
I have been reading Anna Lewis's lovely debut poetry collection, Memory's Abacus, in pre-orders now from Wiseblood Books. Among the surprises this book has to offer is a crown of triolets --- poems linked not only by subject but by first and last lines, the last line of one short poem becoming the first line of the next. The most famous triolet in English, by any account, is Frances Cornford's "To a Fat Lady Seen From a Train" (to which G.K. Chesterton responded with the parody also given at the preceding link). But Lewis's triolets, on motherhood and time, are more meditatively sonnet-like, even as they revel in the fun of their repetitions. Metrical hiccups occur here and there, and some triolets in this fairly long sequence are better than others, but on the whole these are really strong poems, in a strong and compressed first book.
I finished the Agatha Christie, There Is a Tide. About halfway through, I remembered seeing this story as an episode of Poirot, though I'm still sure I hadn't read it before. I remembered the basic outcome, though I'd have to re-watch the episode to see how faithful they were to the ending, which honestly was fairly . . . awful? The basic gist: Girl ready to throw over her engagement to marry murderer comes to senses when fiance attempts to strangle her. She actually says things like, "In that moment I knew I was your woman" --- because as he moves to kill her (which I guess fortunately he doesn't do, although really she's pretty stupid, given her choice between a murderer and a guy who's apparently ready to murder her) he says, "If I can't have you, then no one will." Yeah, there's a recipe for happiness. Be that surrendered wife, ladies. He loves you that much. It's the sexiest thing ever. Anyway, up to that point it was an okay mystery (would have been better if I hadn't suddenly remembered the plot twist, which I will not give away in case you decide you can stomach the ending). But Dame Agatha! Come on!
The husband is still asleep in the lovely bed pictured above, but I am ready to get dressed and get on with things. I shall have to tiptoe and choose my clothes quietly.
Wearing:
Again the rule is: What's at the bottom of the dress stack?
The life cycle of any of these knit wool dresses is as follows:
1. Wear
2. Take off and hang to air on the drying rack
3. After some days, fold and replace in hanging shelf with other dresses, on top of the stack
So whatever is on the bottom is the dress I haven't worn in the longest, more or less --- by the time I take them off the drying/airing rack, I can't remember what I wore when, so this is always a bit of a guess.
Anyway:
*Wool& Maggie dress (M/Long) in Marine Blue, bought May 2022
*The hardworking very old thrifted cotton Eddie Bauer cardigan, bought it's been so long that I forget when
*Secondhand Allbirds navy tencel-merino leggings, bought May 2023
*Xero Oswego shoes, bought late 2021, I think? I'm really losing track of time here. I know I bought them on clearance in the last sale where Xero even offered them, for some ridiculously low price. Anyway, I don't wear these purple ones as often, now that I have dark-gray ones, but I do still like them, and they seemed like a good choice today.
I really only love this dress with navy leggings, as a cooler-weather option. I keep trying it with other colors --- and I do like burgundy or green or gray tights with it, but really, I prefer it with these leggings, if I'm going to wear leggings. There's just something about having a nice clean tonal line, especially with a swing dress. I could wear the slate-blue ones, and I think that would be nice, but not with these shoes. Why? I don't know. I just haven't liked outfits I've made with this where there's too much going on with different colors.
One more day of default ponytail before I wash my hair for church tomorrow. I honestly don't mind the default ponytail when it's short like this --- it looks tidy pulled back this way, though the front will start to fall out.
Anyway, there it is. Time to let the dog out. I'll leave you with the periodic Old Face in Morning Sun shot, because I am here for the celebration of the Unretouched Old Face to Which Life Has Happened.
Now to go out and let some more life happen to it.
