From my window: a brilliant morning. Highs in the low 50s Farenheit; it's two degrees above freezing now.
I made coffee this morning for the first time in the little single-cup coffee pot the Texasgirl gave me for Christmas:
The adorableness pretty much sends me. Until now, with two of us in the house, one of whom makes full pots of coffee all day long when he's at home, I haven't had a chance to try it out, but I can report that this little item is both darling and functional. The top pot has a little depression pricked with holes, where you put your ground coffee, with a little lid that fits over it, also pricked with holes. You fill the depression with coffee, put the little hole-lid on, fill the top pot with boiling water, put on its lid, and wait for the water to drip through. Then you pour your coffee from the spout in the bottom pot. You can take the top pot off and just put the lid on the bottom one, or you can hold both handles and pour without taking it apart. I don't know where she got this thing, but I love it.
On today:
*dog walk (or an attempt thereat --- she still really doesn't want to leave the house at all, and at least as of last night, she still definitely doesn't want to set foot off our property)
*writing --- poem revision, plus I really need to crank out some essays for next week
*probably a work phone call of at least an hour
*bringing in laundry from the line --- my dryer is making a strange noise, so I've been opting not to use it. Of course, anything small, like clothes and underwear, I hand-wash and dry on the drying rack inside, but towels and larger things go on the backyard line. I found some little clips at the dollar store that work very well for clothespins:
I bought them for stocking stuffers, but most people left theirs here, so ha ha, more clothespins for me. I really do love hanging laundry to dry. The dryer is a convenience, and I appreciate it, but doing smaller batches of washing and then hanging them means that nothing really gets lost. No stuff tangled up together and stuck with static cling. No pulling huge indeterminate wads of my textile belongings out and sorting them. Very little wrinkling. Ease of folding and putting away.
I mean, this is somewhat weather-dependent. I'd really kind of love to have a back-porch clothesline, under the roof but still in the outdoor air. And I am going to buy a ceiling rack to install above the tub in the bathroom: one of those racks that you can let down to put things on, then hoist it back up out of the way. That's one of my resolutions for 2025. There was one in a house we stayed in in Normandy in the summer of 2001, and I've wanted one ever since. This is the year I'm going to do it!
*Oh, also, I want to go to Mass for First Friday. Good thing I checked the website: Friday Mass is at noon now, not 6 p.m., as it has been. That's actually good news for me going forward, because I'm far more likely to go to a noon Mass than I am an evening one during the week.
Wearing:
*Secondhand Wool& Sierra dress (S) in Washed Navy, bought November 2024, last worn yesterday. Wears this year to date: 2
*Secondhand Not Perfect Linen Smock dress (S/M) in Dark Blue-Gray, bought December 2023, last worn December 13. Wears this year to date: 1
*Secondhand Brooks Brothers merino cardigan, bought November 2023, second full year of wear
*Snag merino tights in Storm Cloud, bought spring 2022, third season of wear
*Secondhand Earth Shoe Mary Janes, bought August 2024, first season of wear
This is a tweak on my original outfit plan, and I like it. As you see, I did after all decide on a Sierra for an under-dress --- this Washed Navy is really just a slightly darker shade of Dark Blue-Gray, so it works as a tonal but not contrasting visible layer under my linen dress. And I'm glad to have it, because it's bright-but-chilly out there. I love the pale pink of my cardigan with this blue-gray, too. Overall, I'm enjoying the "color story" in this outfit: dumb phrase, I think, but not totally un-apt. My eye, at any rate, takes pleasure in the juxtaposition of soft pink and graphite-gray, with just a note of contrast in my shoes (which are not so very orangey --- not enough to to be too discordant, I don't think).
Clean hair pulled back in a claw-clip half-updo. I don't wear these plastic clips that often, but I do like this rose-pink one and thought it would work well here. It's a little bulkier than the clips I normally wear for this kind of updo, but my hair has some bulk today, so it balances out.
Off in a minute to Mass, then back home to eat some lunch and do some work. I am still enjoying my solitude --- last night I binge-watched four episodes of the new season of Shetland, which the husband wouldn't have wanted to watch. By the time he gets home I'll be very glad to see him, but for now a little spell of private autonomy is pleasant.
Still reading Catherine of Siena, but I've also just bought, for Kindle, Helen Castor's The Eagle and the Hart and Susanna Clarke's The Wood at Midwinter --- hard copies of which I sent to the Texasgirl for her Epiphany birthday.
Better tie this off and get ready to leave the house.
AFTERNOON UPDATE:
*Dora and I took an actual walk to the bottom of the Park Loop and back --- hooray!
*Very nice Mass at noon, celebrating the Holy Name of Jesus.
*Ate smoked salmon and cream cheese on rye crisps for lunch.
*Drafted an essay on a quite lovely poem, scheduled for Tuesday, I think.
Trying to decide what I feel like eating for supper. It's been nice to have early dinners (while watching something fun . . . not sure what it'll be tonight), then read in bed luxuriantly until I fall asleep. I will get tired of this, but for now it's very pleasant.