Dora being vigilant on the porch yesterday afternoon. She moved before I could photograph her with her chin on the back of the sofa.
Last night, for the feast of Mary Magdalene, I made kind of a special dinner: this recipe for steak with chimichurri. I had some small eye of round steaks in the freezer --- this is a cheap cut of meat (which is why I buy it) that cooks up pretty well, even if you don't braise or slow-cook it, but just sear and cook it to rare or medium-rare. Usually I marinate it in some combination of balsamic vinegar and seasonings, but I wanted to use the abundance of hot peppers in the garden. I also had a lot of cilantro. So . . .
There are other recipes for chimichurri that use fresh oregano, and I wish I had seen them, because I also have a lot of fresh oregano. I might have to do chicken with chimichurri sometime soon, using oregano as well as cilantro. But anyway, this recipe was delicious. I had frozen green beans --- the thin long whole-bean kind, not the chopped short fatter ones (which I actually hate) --- and sauteed those in olive oil and some Montana steak seasoning the Fire Son gave us for Christmas last year, with cumin and chili spices. So that was our side. It was a delicious dinner, and we had a good time talking together.
Today:
*dog walk
*Mass at noon
*fiction slushpile reading (holy cow, there are a lot of unread stories in that slushpile --- reading is going to take forever, even with extra people like me helping out. I read six stories yesterday, and that barely scratched the surface)
*upload Substack essays for next week
*weights and trampoline at some point
*call my mother-in-law to have dinner this weekend
*Read/study
Wearing today:
*Secondhand Flax navy linen tunic, bought April 2024, last worn June 16 (with this very skirt, in fact)
*Secondhand vintage April Cornell blue floral rayon crepe maxi skirt, bought on Ebay in the fall of 2021, I think, last worn with this Flax tunic June 16
*Birk Mayaris, bought at Easter, last worn yesterday
So, another all-secondhand outfit, which I like. I also like that planning out my clothes this week meant that I challenged myself to wear an item I have not really worn as an everyday piece, like ever, in all the time I've had it: this skirt. There's no reason for my not having worn it more often --- I just haven't. I like it a lot and am not going to resell it or pass it along. What I would like, truly, is to wear it more. So I put it on the list to make myself do that.
It's the kind of thing I wouldn't buy now, just because of the fiber content. I also did not expect it to be this crepe texture --- what I was expecting was silky 90s rayon. But the 90s came in this texture, too, and now that's what I have. I think I haven't worn it as much --- and have never just worn it for everyday --- because it feels a little fragile. I don't think it actually is that fragile, so manifestly the thing for me to do is get over that feeling.
I wore almost this exact outfit to church the Sunday before we left for Norway. The main difference is that at the time, I thought the tunic looked better tucked in. I spent a lot of time in that post explaining why I thought so.
And now? I don't think so. Looking back at photos I took that day, I find I like the untucked tunic better. I like the flow over the skirt. There's maybe no proportion-theory explanation for this, but I have changed my mind, and there it is.
I'm going to want a top layer with this outfit for Mass, to cover my shoulders and keep me from freezing in the air conditioning. Probably I'll go for the same secondhand J.Jill linen-blend cardigan I wore with this combination on June 16:
I like the tonal navy-on-navy. They don't match, but they do echo each other. But alternatively, I could wear this cardigan's fraternal twin, also bought secondhand last year:
I also really like this. The soft contrast is nice, and the champagne-colored cardigan picks up notes of cream and gold in the pattern of the skirt, not as an exact match, but again as a tonal echo.
Shown here with Artgirl coffee mug:
I really might go for this option, if for no other reason than that I haven't worn it before. Again, these cardigans are such champions in the summer: lightweight and breathable, with some rayon content but a larger proportion of linen, and nice adaptable colors that go with so many things. This off-white/champagne color (I think of it as "car color," as in every car in 2003) is about as close to yellow as I can successfully wear, but it does really work for me. The sheeny knit feels special, too. I often wear these cardigans when I need to dress up a little.
My long accent necklace --- a 1920s silver piece with silver filigree beads, which my husband bought me for some occasion many years ago --- is broken and needs to go to the jeweler's. This tunic would actually benefit from the line of a long necklace. But as I don't have a functional long necklace at this precise moment, the tunic will just have to live without it.
Day 3 updo hair, simple and off my neck. Still wearing these silver glasses, because that way I don't forget to wear sunglasses when I go outside.
Thinking that for my travel capsule this weekend, I might just take three linen dresses and one wool. I'm really feeling linen right now . . . Stay tuned.
I'll leave you with my unadorned morning face, as your periodic reminder that this kind of face is NORMAL and GOOD. Also, you would think that in a person's sixtieth year her skin would stop breaking out, but you would be not entirely correct.
