While we're reveling in the glories of the July garden (and very carefully avoiding shots of most of the yard, which doesn't look all that glorious), how about some four-o'-clocks? Here they are in their closed phase, in the midday light. Later they'll open into delicate flutes, which the bees and hummingbirds love.
Not that I've seen that many hummingbirds this year, now that I think of it. I saw a couple early on, but not so many since we've been back from Norway. Of course, we haven't been eating on the porch much, which means we don't see them when they buzz the abelias and the four-o'-clocks out front, but in the past I have seen them around the blue sage and bee balm, not to mention these four-o'-clocks in back. Maybe I just need to pay more attention.
Today's agenda:
*Walk the dog
*Revise the three Substack essays I've written for next week
*Continue finishing the Phaedo (I keep thinking I'm going to finish it outright, then not reading quite that far --- there's only so much argument against the fear of death one person can digest at one sitting), continue the Confessions, continue Don Quixote, read a Milton poem, read some more Evelyn Waugh. Last night he finally returned, not without difficulty, to London from Africa. In the next chapter, he's going to Brazil.
*Change the sheets on my bed. I slept poorly last night, I think in part because the cotton jersey sheets just weren't comfortable. These were quite cheap sheets, because I needed to buy two sets at once for our new bed, and while they're okay in the winter, they're not great for the summer. Cotton percale is cool. Cotton jersey is like the too-heavy t-shirt you can't take off. And they've started to pill, which makes them not as soft as they might be (see "cheap," above).
So back on with the bamboo sheets, which are still in the dryer, if I recall correctly --- with no progeny at home and nobody really vying for the laundry facilities, I begin to do exactly what drives me insane when my offspring do it: use the dryer as storage. I want to buy another set of bamboo sheets when I can, too. These were not cheap, but I love them. They're temperature-regulating in ways that cotton demonstrably is not, great for both summer and winter. They're soft and smooth. I really want a duplicate set when I can get one, because I'm tired of this cotton-jersey business.
Today's high is 94F, another hot one. Last night we had rain and thunderstorms, and today, while everything is steamy, it does look marvelously green. So often, this late in the summer, we're just burned to a crisp. Brown grass, wilted leaves, everything just looking tired of it all. It's a sauna out there, but at least the the world looks fresh.
Wearing today:
*Wool& Brooklyn dress (S/Long) in Beetroot, bought November 2023, last worn exactly one week ago.
*Thrifted Chico's linen button shirt, bought December 2023, last worn . . . gosh . . . looks like May 22.
*Secondhand Birk Mayaris, last worn day before yesterday, with the green counterpart of today's dress.
I'll probably lose the shirt later, because it's going to be hot. But I wanted to vary things up a little, even if how I've varied them up is pretty much a riff on what I wore Monday: different colors, same idea (even the same dress and shirt makers . . .).
Obviously I bought this big shirt with Lent and Advent in mind. But I also like this shade of purple, which is cool and saturated without being overwhelming. Purple is a good color for me, and I love it, but it's easy to overdo: too dark, too plummy, too muddy, too bright, too much. I like how, here, it sits softly against the almost-too-much magenta of my dress:
This is a cool, easy combination to wear today for a little extra sun protection, but I could also see it in Advent, when the weather is often still fairly warm, or on a day in Lent, with graphite-gray tights and boots. I like stumbling on combinations that work, with tweaks for the temperature, all year round.
If I were really motivated, I'd add a hat. I love the idea of hats, and I have a couple, but I don't love them so much that I go out of my way to wear them very often. I should try to do that, for the sun protection as much as anything else --- though a hat is, in fact, another of those details that move you from wearing your clothes to styling them. How much do I care about that? Eh . . . it's variable.
But I like what I have on. I'm glad I put this dress on the list again for this week. I have worn both my Brooklyns in cold weather as well as warm, but they really shine in the summer, just simple sweet cool dresses with sandals.
Accessorized here as well with my morning coffee. Note how the cup harmonizes with but does not match any other element in my outfit . . . OK, that's ridiculous, but in fact I'm noticing that this kind of oatmealy beige looks nice with my magenta dress. The linen lab coat, for example, voluminous though it is, might be good to pair with this dress sometime. I really need to remember in the autumn and early winter that I own that thing. That's when it would come into its glory, as a coat layer when the weather is still too warm for a proper coat.
Hair in a default ponytail, to keep it off my neck. I will wash it again tonight, because my plan tomorrow is to go to Mass at 8 a.m., then to have coffee with a friend, and then in the evening to go out for our date night. I'll want to have clean hair, but I won't have time in the morning to deal with it. In the meantime, it does in fact feel soft and clean and nice, but I'm glad just to get it out of my way in a satin scrunchie. I should go for a tidy pulled-back look more often than I do, not least because it means I don't have to do anything else to my hair. I bore myself a lot trying to style it, and the layers are at an awkward growing-out stage right now. I'll be glad to have it mostly blunt again for a while, though I will probably continue to trim in some front layers via the "unicorn" method (hair in a ponytail in the middle of your forehead, and you trim off the ends).
For years I've tried to have layers that helped my waves and curls to take shape, but honestly, I'm kind of tired of that, and I've come to terms with the fact that, as variable as my hair texture is from day to day, I need a very simple shape to work with. Yeah, yeah, layers give your hair movement and all that, but they make it hard to put your hair up when you want to, and the styles I most consistently like on myself are pulled back: half-updos, ponytails, claw-clip updos. My hair is pretty worn down, but it's honestly better, overall, without wonky, shaggy layers around the sides. Just a little tapering and face-framing in front, a softly tapered shape around, and that's it.
And now, having overthought all that, I hereby release my self-consciousness onto this page and resolve to go live my life for one more hot swampy day.
AFTERNOON UPDATE:
I have
*Walked the dog
*Revised and uploaded my three essays for next week (Christina Rossetti, Walter de la Mare, Emily Dickinson), finding art and author images for each one, putting up buttons and book ads, etc. I will revisit these on Friday and Monday, to tweak and edit, but the bulk of the work for next week is DONE.
*Jumped on the trampoline, done some quick reps with 5-lb weights (upper back, biceps, triceps).
*Kept on my linen shirt, even though I'm sitting outside on the porch, and it's hot. This is a nice, heavy, substantial linen fabric (a lot thicker than my other Chicos shirt), but I'm really not appreciably hotter in it than I would have been otherwise. I like the way it looks, so I haven't taken it off, except to exercise.
*Eaten a substantial lunch of leftover Vietnamese lemongrass beef. I think for dinner tonight I'll make some kind of bean salad with peppers and cucumber --- something cool and light. And maybe some kefir sorbet with mango, lime juice, and blackberry and a good dose of whey protein powder. That also sounds very cool and very filling.
*Revisited the blog I made for my youngest kids' senior year of high school, basically a dashboard for the work they were doing for me (they were also taking a number of classes at Belmont Abbey, for dual credit). A friend had some questions about things we'd done, and it was easier just to give her the link than to try to remember in any detail what we were doing four years ago.
I still need to change the sheets. Better get up in a minute and make that investment in a better night's sleep.