Fog and rain in Blowing Rock Saturday afternoon. That weather turned to wind and snow overnight, and yesterday was bright but very cold. We'd thought we might do some hiking, but instead we just drove the Parkway down past Linnville, then picked up Highway 221 and made our slow way home via country roads.
Anyway, we had a nice time. I didn't feel too well all yesterday (possibly because I'd had such a very nice time the night before . . .). We came home earlier than we'd planned, but that was okay --- lay about for a while, then managed to drag ourselves back up the road to Hickory for the hangove--- I mean, the 5 p.m. Mass at St. Aloysius. We weren't feeling particularly laetare-laetare (and interestingly, literally nothing in that Mass, other than the vestment color, pointed to the fact that it was Laetare Sunday), but fortunately liturgical reality, like all the rest of reality, does not depend on our inner disposition for its existence.
What I wore out on Saturday night:
I didn't bother to photograph myself yesterday, but I wore the same dress and boot with my green pullover and my marbled green bamboo-cotton tights.
Wearing today for a long day of Zoom teaching:
*Wool& Willow dress (M) in Wisteria, bought February 2023 & repeated pretty constantly in this Lenten wardrobe capsule
*Secondhand J.Jill navy linen-ramie duster cardigan, bought spring or summer 2023
*Secondhand bamboo-cotton marble-patterned leggings, bought December 2021, dyed green last summer by me
*Farm to Feet socks
*Secondhand Birkenstock Melrose boots in Graphite, bought summer 2023
So, repeats of items out of my weekend backpack, chiefly the leggings and boots. We have a 30-degree temperature range today: right now it's just broken 40F, with a high of 63F. So, a nice day, and I might change out of these boots later, but I'm going to be grateful for light layers as the weather moves through its stages. The sun is out, however, for which I'm sure we're all grateful (we who are seeing it, anyway).
I also love this linen-blend duster. I have another in a kind of champagne color, but I get a lot more wear out of this sheeny navy, which combines so well with virtually every other color in my closet.
Here, I like it next to this muted periwinkle. I especially like the two knit textures in juxtaposition, for a little added, though subtle, interest.
This dress is too short and casual for me to wear it in most professional situations, but the long cardigan dresses it up a good bit, and for Zoom purposes, it's perfect: a color and neckline that flatter me, with a top layer for some polish. I might well change top layers between my classes today, just so I don't appear to be doing them on the same day, but we'll see what I feel like doing.
I do also like this dress with my pink cardigan:
So I could do that. Or put on a blazer. Or a pullover. Whatever. It's Zoom, and I have to look good from the sternum up, essentially.
Oh, I was glad, when I got home, that I'd washed the pet cover on the daybed. The house did not smell appreciably doggy (as it so often does), for which I was grateful. I can't remember when I last ran the vacuum cleaner --- I did notice that. But it was nice to come home to a relatively fresh house (bed made with clean sheets, no dishes in sink, no appreciable visual clutter). I spend a lot of time in my house, and it could feel like a prison, but I've put a lot of energy into making it a refuge instead, a place I like to come home to, a place I'm happy to be.
And that's a good thing, because I'm going to be in it a lot this week, getting stuff done. Speaking of, the dog seems still to be asleep, but I'd better rustle her up and out for our morning walk, before I get on with the rest of the stuff.