Alas, the sun is not shining this morning, but the daffodils are still blooming away. The early ones have finished, but the later varieties continue to cheer us daily, and I'm glad I planted so many. Not that I couldn't plant more! There's no such thing as too many daffodils in the spring. I'm always on the lookout for new places to put them in. This year the ones I planted . . . four? . . . years ago? . . . have naturalized significantly into much bigger clumps than I remember, so that's marvelous to see. As scraggly and unkempt as our garden borders usually are, it is wonderful to have them lit up with living sunshine in the early spring.
The forsythias are starting to leaf out, and soon their gold will be finished. Most of the time they're pretty nondescript, though the ones along the street do provide a nice buffer between us and the college across the way. Far less trash blows into our yard from over there now that we have this hedge in place. Soon that border will be blooming with iris, then lilies and coneflowers and hoary mountain mint. But the real reason I planted the forsythias --- aside from keeping topsoil in our yard after our big tree came down all those years ago, was for this brief period in the spring when they are tongues of flame like the Holy Spirit. I'll spend the whole rest of the year waiting for it to happen again.
It's wet and blustery today. Our driveway, just outside my study window, is littered with tulip-tree petals --- soon those flowers will be gone, too. It's good to notice them while they're here.
I woke up sometime before daylight to the sound of rain, and was glad to hear it. Rain means that I will not, after all, be wearing a silk dress to church today as planned, but then it also means that my newly filled grow bags are well watered. Late yesterday afternoon I went out to buy dog food, and I also bought a little bag of elephant-ear bulbs and one peony root, which I brought home and settled into patio planters. The peony is next to the azalea I planted yesterday, while the elephant ears are in the planter on the side nearest the chairs and grill.
I think I might put another Encore Azalea in the planter kitty-corner behind the current azalea, for more color and an evergreen backdrop --- the idea is for the hose and the basement door to remain accessible, but not be so totally on display. Ditto that pile of pots, which I could, alternatively, just stack neatly in the garage. I'm thinking that once it's warm enough for houseplants to come outside, I'll also set my tree philodendron out here, plus some aloe plants --- this area gets morning sun, but the closer you get to the house, the shadier it is, so things like that won't get scorched. I could add orchids as well, depending on how much room I have. My goal is for that little area to be its own garden, right inside the gate. Across the back walk there will be lilies and blue sage, four-o'clocks and Rose-of-Sharon and Black-eyed Susans, but the idea is for the whole entry there to be full of things growing: a lot of green, mostly, but also some blooms. Then food crops, but also flowers for cutting, in the fenced kitchen garden.
If it's not pouring down this afternoon, my plan is to plant carrot and beet seeds. I put in some carrots last week, but now I have enough grow bags to start some more. Meanwhile, lettuces are starting to sprout, and all the garlic I planted a week or so ago is coming up.
Only three days left in my 9x9 challenge: today, tomorrow, and Tuesday. I haven't gotten bored --- it's been fun to rotate these dresses. I could wish for another opportunity to wear the silk dress, though I am glad I had it for our anniversary night out last Monday. If we hadn't been doing that, I might have opted for my Black Heather Audrey dress, although then I'd have had to add something purple to go with it. It was easier just to have all purple dresses, in various shades, then a couple of relatively neutral cardigans to swap back and forth. The principle, I guess, was the same as having a capsule of black items, with a few coordinating colors --- only more interesting, I think, and for me, more flattering. If I REALLY wanted to be penitential and get over myself, I would wear a black dress all Lent, but so far I have not felt called to that extreme of personal mortification.
I am starting to think what I might do this week once my challenge is over. The weather is continuing warm, with highs in the 60s and 70s Farenheit, so I can keep not worrying overmuch about layers. Monday and Thursday are the coolest days in the forecast, with highs in the very low 60s, but otherwise the weather should be very much springtime.
Things I might wear (a loose outfit plan, I guess):
*Chocolate Brown NPL Leila dress with purple cardigan
*Black Heather Audrey dress with purple cardigan or linen button shirt
*Dark Blue-Gray Smock dress with purple cardigan
*Marine Blue Fiona with purple cardigan or shawl (I do have this lovely shawl that I need to wear when it's not so warm)
*Green Garnet Hill maxi skirt with linen tank and purple cardigan
In other words, I could do a mini-challenge of relatively neutral shades with purple, as a reverse of this past week's mode. Let the purple dresses rest for a week, bring out the purple accessories for a change. I can continue wearing my purple Birk Rosemeads, however --- always handy when I need something purple. So far I've avoided wearing a lot of color that isn't purple. Not that neutrals aren't also colors, and some are better for a given person's coloring than others --- there's no one monolithic category called "neutral" that just looks good on everybody. But I'd like to continue fasting from my teals and greens and pinks, with the exception of that one silk cardigan that clearly I am wearing because it goes so well with these purples. And I'm also making an exception for my green maxi skirt, since that shade of green also functions as a neutral and looks good with purples. I've already worn it this Lent, and I've worn my herbal green leggings as well, so I might as well keep on in that vein.
I think today I'll simply repeat my Grape Wine Smock dress. It's great to get more wears out of that dress, which for some reason is easy to forget about, but looks and feels so good on. I wore it out to dinner last night, and the simplest thing to do today is just to put it on again, with different shoes. I might also engage my blue linen button shirt, which I hand-washed yesterday (with my Iris Blue Sierra and my green leggings). The dress and leggings are still drying --- thank goodness I brought everything in from the line before we went out last night --- but the linen shirt is thin enough that it generally dries within an hour of being hung up. Some Postulant Chic might be just the ticket for church today.
Wearing:
Ta-da . . .
*Secondhand Not Perfect Linen Smock dress (S/M, with mods), bought fall 2024, last worn March 15. Wears in 2025: 6
*Secondhand Chico's linen button shirt, redyed Evening Blue by me in 2023, third year of wear
*Secondhand Banana Republic silk-cotton cardigan, bought February 2025, first year of wear
*Secondhand Birk Papillio Mary wedges, bought fall 2023, second year of wear
This is comfortable, weather-appropriate (impervious to rain, for one thing), and fine. I think I ultimately prefer this dress without a shirt under it, but it's good to vary up the look a bit, and I like getting more wear out of this particular linen shirt. It was a very inexpensive purchase, early in 2023, and it's been versatile and handy over the course of the last 2+ years. I've worn it most as a cool top layer over sleeveless dresses in the summer, but it does do the Postulant Chic thing with a pinafore quite readily as well. I do like the soft greeny blue against this rich purple.
I really think I do better in these propped-camera photos looking anywhere but at the camera. But oh well. I needed to snap some shots quickly before time to take the dog out, and the front porch seemed like a good selfie spot on a wet day. I am trying to vary up the monotony of those bathroom selfies (even though I feel a lot less self-conscious behind a locked door).
I would really love a pair of these Birk Mary wedges in a mahogany brown --- less orange. But even secondhand they seem to run very expensive right now, and I'm not sure I want them so badly that I would use up my last secondhand-purchase slot for the year on them.
Actually, I think I am going to resell my lavender wide-leg jeans. They just feel consistently too big. Not that I'm buying anything in Lent, but reselling those would open up another purchase spot. And I probably will use my second new-purchase slot on something from Wool&, since I will have the $20 credit. Fortunately for me, none of the dresses currently on offer are sending out any siren songs, though of course I'd just about rather have a dress than anything else. But I have dresses . . . I do keep looking at the Natalia wrap cardigan as a possibility. That could be a really nice addition, if they have it in my size in a color I want (Aegean Teal is my frontrunner) by the time I'm ready to make a purchase. We shall see.
Anyway, it's time to walk the dog now. Leaving you with a poem for today's Gospel reading (scroll down past my profile).