Let me guess. It's going to rain today.
The question is when. It can look like this all day long and do nothing. The sun might even come out for a while. Then at some point, without warning, there'll be a clap of thunder, and rain will hammer down like the end of the world.
At least, that's what happened yesterday. Dora and I were on the porch, happily reading --- well, I was reading. Dora was sprawled on the porch sofa, keeping a wary eye on the street. Then her ears went back, and she assumed the disconcerted expression that always strikes me as comic, even though she doesn't mean it that way. She becomes the very embodiment of alarm, with her head up, her ears pressed to her skull, her eyes wide. It's a very old-ladyish look, and as I say, it makes me laugh, even though I feel sorry for her, because she's not putting it on to be funny.
They say dogs can feel disturbances in the atmosphere, and I believe it. There could be nothing happening outside, and our old Lance would retreat to his cave under the kitchen table and sit bolt upright there, shaking so hard his teeth chattered. Ten minutes later, the storm would break, and we would all say, "Yep, there it goes."
So when the thunder came like a big stick breaking, and the rain poured down, I was not that surprised. Dora got up off the porch sofa and slunk to the door, wagging her tail appealingly and begging to go inside. I decided to make a chicken curry with mango for dinner, and while I was doing it, she sat on my feet by the stove in a most helpful way. There's no experience quite like cooking with a 45-pound dog on your feet.
It rained hard for about an hour, stopping before we sat down to dinner. When we went out to walk in the dark around 9 p.m., we saw trees down in a neighbor's yard --- my husband theorized that the ground was so wet that they'd just lost the will to hold on. It's been years since we had serious drought conditions here, but in the last few years we've been finding out which trees' root systems atrophied unseen during the period of no water. Those are the trees that decide, without warning, simply not to stand up anymore.
Fortunately this tree hadn't fallen on the neighbors' house. We reflected again that on balance, we really don't miss our big trees at all. We've got some maples in the side yard between our house and Jane and Steve's that could, and probably will, fall sometime, but the odds are very strong that they'll just fall on the side yard, and not on either house. We hope, actually, that the odds are invincible.
So I haven't looked at the weather report yet, but I predict rain. It seems not unlikely that we will get some. The garden is happy --- I really need to go out and pick blackberries today, because I think it's been 36 hours since we last ate something with blackberries in it. And I think there are some cucumbers maybe ready to pick. Always peppers.
Everything we eat lately has peppers in it. Saturday night I made stuffed green bell peppers with Greek-spiced ground beef (much garlic, oregano, cinnamon, hot peppers, cherry tomatoes, the rest of the last block of feta). Then this spicy mango curry last night, with shredded rotisserie chicken, my favorite convenience-food item of the moment. The recipe was, essentially, garlic, curry powder, minced onion, cumin, and ginger paste, all warmed in melted butter in the pan, then about 2 cups of frozen mango chunks, a can of coconut milk, the package of shredded chicken, hot peppers.
Peppers, peppers, peppers. But they grow so successfully, and I really hope to dry a lot of them this year, as my year-before-last's supply is running low and losing its flavor. Last year, for some reason, I really didn't have enough peppers to bother with, so this year I planted LOTS, and they're all succeeding.
Tomatoes, not so much. And something seems to be wrong with my zucchini, which was doing so well. Something might have gnawed its main stem. The eggplants also aren't doing that spectacularly, though they still have plenty of time. Our growing season is nice and long. I need to sow some more beet seeds (and buy more, if I don't have any left) --- Saturday night with the stuffed peppers we had braised beet greens with baby beets diced in, with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, and that was very good. The husband loves beets, although he's so used to the canned variety that he thought these fresh small ones from the garden tasted earthy. No, I said, this is just how beets actually taste.
Anyway, that's the garden news. You never know what's going to do well, so summer cooking becomes always a surprise. It is nice not to buy produce, other than garlic (I do have some planted, but not that much), and cherry tomatoes, because mine again are not really flourishing. And I keep frozen blueberries and mango chunks always on hand for smoothies. But lately, around here, everything's been blackberries, cucumbers, peppers, and basil. Our whole cuisine revolves around the availability of these items, and it's interesting, I'll tell you that.
Meanwhile, wearing today:
*Secondhand vintage Erika&Co. floral pinafore dress, bought December 2023, last worn July 8 (two weeks ago today, I think)
*Very old thrifted Indian cotton gauze tunic, last worn . . . uh . . . wow, May 18
*Secondhand Birk Mayaris, bought right after Easter, last worn July 18, which I think was last Thursday
So, an all-secondhand outfit. More cotton than I usually wear, which is funny, because I grew up with 100% cotton as the gold standard for clothing. My grandfather was a cotton farmer (among other things --- that is, he was a farmer, but he grew and raised a lot of crops: peaches, apples, soybeans, pigs).
I hadn't worn this tunic in a very long time, which is why I reached for it this morning. It's one of three (? I think?) cotton tops I own. Cotton has its significant drawbacks, but one of them --- that it takes forever to dry when wet --- doesn't apply so much to cotton gauze as to cotton knits. This tunic is very lightweight and cool. I've had it so long I can't remember when I bought it. I know only that I did buy it at Goodwill, on one of my innumerable trips there over the years. My husband loves it, which is one reason I've hung onto it all this time without wearing it super often --- and I like the color and the vibe, which is another reason I've hung onto it. I don't want to wear it all the time, but that's not the same thing as never wanting to wear it, or disliking it when I do wear it.
I'd been planning to wear one of two wool or wool-blend tops under this pinafore dress (which I do unambivalently love and want to wear a lot): either my turquoise silk-cashmere-merino tank, which I like to wear as a base layer under things, or the Devold wool tee I bought in Norway and wore with this dress the last time I wore it. I like both those options quite a bit, actually. But then I thought: what could I wear with this that I haven't worn?
With a high today of only 83F, this seemed like a good time to pull out a longer-sleeved top. This one is light enough not to add a lot of warmth, which is good, but if it were ten degrees hotter, I probably wouldn't consider it. The blue doesn't exactly match the blue in the floral print, but that's okay. Echoes of color, rather than exact matches, are pleasant to the eye.
As I see it, with my not-unerring eye for these things, the blue of my shirt picks up and intensifies the lighter blue in this floral pattern. It's like a whiter, brighter version of that more muted color. I could imagine painting a series of rooms in that blue --- and the room with the most natural light would look like the blue of my shirt, while the room receiving indirect light would look more like the lighter blue in the floral pattern. So I like how these work together.
And I love this pinafore. I'm so happy I bought it (for all of $20). I love the silhouette and the drape. And I love the floral pattern, with its colors. It's not too big and splashy, but it is in a lot of ways more interesting than the Christy Dawn ditsy floral fabrics that my heart tends to pine after. I like the combination of colors, and I like the slightly spiky shapes.
The nice thing about this outfit, other than what I already like about it, is that it would translate with ease to the fall and winter, with tights (navy, say, or else "Red Velvet Cake," which I've worn with it before, and which picks up the pinks in the floral pattern in the same way my blue shirt here picks up the blues), and either Tari boots or my Birk Papillio wedges, which I don't wear every day, but really like for Sundays and occasions. ETA: I think I have worn and certainly could wear my "Crocodile" dark-green Snag merino tights with this dress as well, to echo the note of sagey green in the pattern. Add a cardigan or my jean jacket or my moss-green corduroy blazer, and I'm good to go in the colder weather.
And this is good for the transitional season, when it's still warm but I don't want to look like summer. The colors in this pinafore really go well year-round --- soft and cool enough for spring and summer, but with enough saturation and depth to work in the fall. I have, actually, made a little Poshmark purchase in the midst of my no-buy --- the kind of purchase I was giving myself a loophole to make, since it's in the "boots and shoes" category, and now is the time to watch for deals on secondhand non-summer shoes. I haven't seen anything I'm willing to put down big bucks for, but for little bucks . . . yeah. I did that thing.
As I have noted before, I'm selling my Birkenstock Madeiras, which I've worn since . . . 2020? I think? Is maybe when I bought them? Or 2021? Anyway, a while. And I've reconciled myself to the idea that I've tried to like them more than I've actually liked them. I've never been 100% happy with any outfit I've ever made with them, which suggests that the common denominator in my discomfort has been . . . the shoes. What a surprise. So I have priced them low, given that the soles, especially, have tons of wear left, with the thought of moving them along.
But that leaves me without a pair of real, versatile transitional shoes (which I have wanted in vain for the Madeiras to be), for the warm weather between the end of sandal season and boot season. I needed something that I could potentially wear with tights in colder weather, but also, and especially, with bare legs when I want to look more fallish but it's still hot.
What I found, marked down to $13, was a pair of tan leather Stegmann clogs. Now, I hadn't really thought about Stegmann shoes in decades, but I had, once upon a time in the 1980s, a pair of wool Stegmann clogs that I wore completely out. I loved those shoes. I had them before I had Birkenstocks, and loved them just about as much. They're just as comfortable, with their cork soles, but a little slimmer in appearance. So although I'd been searching for Stegmann Mary Janes, I was excited to see these clogs appear, priced at $20. When the price was dropped to $13, I took it as a sign and bought them.
I won't want to wear these in wet or snowy weather, obviously, but for the transitional weather of which we have so much, I think they'll be perfect. They're a fairly light tan, a more muted color than my Tari boots and less orange than my Birk Papillios, so could really be worn all year round with pretty much everything --- but the leather means that they won't look too summery in the winter. The shape and silhouette should look good with my NPL Leila dresses, to take them into the fall --- my Madeiras are just too clunky and square to work with those twirly dresses, but I think the sleeker profile of these clogs will be perfect. They're leather, so should give with my bunion, and although the toe box isn't as wide as Birkenstock's toe boxes, it's certainly as wide as my Xero shoes'. When the temperature drops, I can wear tights with them as well.
I have, on the other hand, resisted the siren song of dresses, even though there are plenty out there. I'm simply going to save up for my birthday dress, probably an Emerald Green NPL Mama dress (though I am still eyeing other similar styles). I might order this dress around the first of October, so that I can have it to wear for my book-launch event in Milwaukee at the end of October --- it would be fun to have a new dress for that, though of course I do have things to wear. But this is my thought.
Here, finally, is the obligatory coffee-mug pose for today:
It's the Artgirl cicada mug again, my favorite. Goes with everything. Makes me happy to hold it in my hand: from her hands to mine. And I shall see her lovely face later this week, which also makes me happy.
Really wishing to see other lovely faces as well . . . at the moment the Texascouple have Anastasia living with them, so I think I'll hold off on a road trip until sometime in September, when maybe she will have figured things out and moved on. This is, as far as I know, the last year I'll be able to hit Dallas and see 3/4 of the faces I most love (well, aside from their father's), and I want to make the most of it.
But for now, to work, to make the most of these three days before the Artgirl and I depart to visit the grandmothers. On the Substack this week, I'm writing (actually have written) on Christina Rossetti, Walter de la Mare, and Emily Dickinson. Next week I'll be up with Edward Thomas's "Adlestrop" and T.S. Eliot's "La Figlia che Piange," the poem that closes his first slim collection, Prufrock and Other Observations. The week after that? I forget. Haven't written those yet.
A good Monday to all who observe.
LUNCHTIME UPDATE:
I have
*walked the dog (we came within sight of two other dogs walking and did not lose it, so clap for us)
*eaten the remaining two beef-stuffed peppers, because I was famishing for protein, and I'm the only one home (besides Dora). I feel much better. I can feel my hair regrowing --- well, not really, but if I don't eat enough protein, it won't. It'll just fall out more.
*Done some revisions to next week's Substack essays, and am putting off uploading them. They both seem kind of long, but I at least halfway feel that the subjects demand that much inspection.
*Read and rejected six short stories for the magazine. Whatever else might happen, the world is safe from these six short stories.
*Done some small tweaks on an increasingly creepy weird persona poem, not at all in my usual vein. I had thought about maybe writing a cycle of poems with this persona, but I'm not sure I could stand that much of her.
Taking a little break now. Feeling very Mondayish. Feeling extremely tempted just to throw it all over and binge-watch George Gently, since I'm here with just Dora, and she won't judge.
But I should probably do my studies first. That's how I'm thinking about all this Harvard Classics reading, even given my reservations about the whole Harvard Classics project. And again I say, No Aristotle?
So maybe what I'll do is read for a while and then see. Ah, the husband is back --- I'd thought he was going in to the Abbey, but this must have been one of his routine doctor appointments. So I probably won't binge-watch anything, because he finds that weird, and while he doesn't tell me what to do, and I can do what I want, still. That's the kind of thing I reserve as a treat for when I'm all by myself.
I have really succeeded in giving Dora a kibble-stuffed Kong. I put in a CBD treat, three of the flea pills she likes as treats, some kibble --- and then some cardboard from a toilet-paper roll, which I pressed down into top opening to make it hard to get at the kibble. She's been working on it with enthusiasm for an hour. Usually a Kong takes her two minutes. She'll be both ready to eat and tired right out when I'm ready to crate her for nap time. This is a win. I'm going to remember it.
OH ALSO:
There's been a #ditchthepantschallenge happening on Instagram, and not really deliberately, I've been observing it. Well, okay, granted, I own one pair of trousers. They're there if I need them. But it's not really a burden not to wear them. I will be keeping this in mind for the next closet-compression go-round, though for right now there if I need them is a good reason to keep them there.