After a glorious springlike weekend it's below freezing again this morning --- but nothing fazes the forsythia. Today marks the beginning of Shrovetide, the days before Ash Wednesday, generally marked by a carnival atmosphere leading up to the austerities of Lent. In the traditional calendar, the church is decked out in purple and there's no Gloria in the Mass, but people are still rioting in the streets, savoring their good times before the long bare season closes down on them.
On the edge of Lent every year, I always feel that I'm standing on the lip of a tunnel, taking my last breaths of free fresh air before plunging down into the dark. That's a little melodramatic, I realize. In fact Lent is never really that dark. It's just long. I usually fail at my penances, which is a penance in itself. The most successful penances are the ones the husband and I undertake together: no alcohol, no Thursday date night, general austerity at our meals, a revival of our faltering habit of saying the rosary together at night. It's good to have somebody in the yoke with you, so that at least you have this baseline of observances that you're not letting fall by the wayside in the middle of the first full week.
And then I'm not bad at wearing purple, a discipline so ridiculously easy at this point that I can't even call it a discipline. It's really just more of a reminder to me, so that I do think about the deeper things.
Today:
*Walk the dog
*Go to Mass
*Eat lunch
*Do some reading
*Plant some flower seeds
*Fiddle (in a non-servile-labor way of enjoyment) with some writing
*Make dinner
Etc. It's going to be chilly, especially relative to recent temperatures: high of only 54F. But the week will warm up again at least a little, with the highest projected temperatures in the 60sF. Spring isn't here yet, but Aslan is on the move.
Since I've been endorsing products lately (non-affiliate, non-sponsored, absolutely my own free endorsements of things I like), and since I literally just put some on after my morning bath, let me just give a little shout-out to Lume deodorant. I have mostly not worn deodorant for the last decade, at least, because of the aluminum. My occasional forays into "natural" deodorants have been exercises in why bother. In fact, I tried some unscented Lume in the roll-on container a few years ago, and that felt like a big why bother, too. The unscented had, actually, a weird unwashed-body scent that was hard to describe, off-putting enough that I didn't ever buy any more. I figured I smelled at least as good without it as with it.
But then in Walmart a couple of months ago I saw that they had tubes of the "whole body cream" deodorant, and I thought, why not? This time I didn't buy the unscented, but the Toasted Coconut, which I figured would be fairly inoffensive. This is true --- it is pretty inoffensive, even pleasant. And being a lotion-like cream in a tube, it's easy to use not just on your underarms, but anywhere you'd like some odor protection --- feet, for example.
It works, folks. Supposedly the odor protection lasts for 72 hours --- I just reapply whenever I either bathe or sponge-bathe, first using a little rubbing alcohol on whatever area it is to eliminate bacteria. I know it works because my tights smell better after I wear them, when I've rubbed some of this cream into my feet.
They also make a body wash, a bar soap, packs of wipes (though you don't get many for the price, so I wouldn't buy them to rely on them for spot-cleaning all the time), and various other products. This $15 tube has lasted me about six weeks so far, and should last a good long time. You need only a tiny amount on any one spot, so over time it shouldn't wind up being significantly more expensive than any other deodorant product.
Anyway, I thought I'd mention this mostly because I had found the unscented so incredibly unappealing that I'd written these products off entirely. I'm glad now to be proven wrong. People do say that after a while it can stop working (body chemistry, blah blah blah, I have no idea what the actual explanation is), but again, I wasn't wearing deodorant anyway . . .
So that's my product-placement for today. Now to get dressed.
Wearing:
*Secondhand Not Perfect Linen Leila dress (S/M) in Cinnamon Rose, bought December 2023, last worn February 23. Wears in 2025: 4
*Secondhand Not Perfect Linen Bay tank (S) in Dusty Blue, bought February 2025, last worn February 28. First year of wear
*Secondhand Connemara merino cardigan, bought fall 2024, first year of wear
*Snag merino tights in Sand Dollar, first year of wear
*Secondhand Keens Baby Bern boots, first year of wear
Getting in a totally not-purple dress while I can, in the carnival spirit of Shrovetide.
EVENING UPDATE:
Made a Thai red chicken curry stew for dinner, riffing a little on this recipe. I didn't have fresh lemongrass, basil, or cilantro, but I did have lemongrass and basil pastes, which at least approximated the flavors (not authentic, but the husband was happy). No bamboo shoots, but yes green beans. I also just mixed in cauliflower rice to make it a one-pot meal. Again, not restaurant-authentic, and I would not have served this for company, but for the two of us on a Sunday night it was perfectly good and warming, and made ample leftovers for lunches.
We're going to have Lundi Gras instead of Mardi Gras, since the husband works late on Tuesdays: pancake supper followed by my friend Jane's play at the Benedict XVI Institute.
Loose outfit plan for this week:
*Floral pinafore over Wool& Beetroot Brooklyn with beige silk cardigan, navy merino tights, and Tari boots
*Wool& Ocean Teal Willow with striped teal bamboo leggings and Birk Mayaris
*NPL Caffe Mocha Mama dress with Birk Rosemeads
*NPL Grape Wine Smock dress with Dusty Rose base-layer tee, Red Velvet merino tights, Tari boots
*Wool& Iris Blue Sierra with Flax tunic, green bamboo leggings, Tari boots
*Chico's purple linen button shirt with turquoise silk-cashmere-merino tank, lavender wide-leg jeans and Birks
*Sunday Mass: April Cornell silk maxi dress with beige silk cardigan and Papillio Mary wedges
And now it's teatime.