Why yes, it is the most wonderful time of the year.
Yesterday I finished one essay and got another started, then in the afternoon, I went out and bought vegetable-garden plants. I am not an indoor seed-starter --- I am happy to buy plants that someone else has started, though I will sow seeds outdoors. Anyway, I acquired a number of kinds of pepper: sweet banana plus a variety of hot peppers, including one Thai chili pepper (fortunately I remembered to put the little tabs that come in the pots in the planters with the plants, so I will know what they are). I bought three small-tomato plants: one grape tomato and two yellow "pear tomatoes." I cook with and eat grape tomatoes and cherry tomatoes far more than I do full-size ones, so these seemed like good choices. I bought an eggplant and a zucchini, plus some flower seeds --- zinnia and calendula, since I already have cosmos coming up as volunteers in several planters --- and a packet of pole beans for the planter with a pole teepee. Oh, and basil, which I sowed around the tomato plants, but I think I'll get another packet to sow in a pot by itself. Want to be sure I have plenty of basil for the summer!
My aim was to have a mix, in the kitchen garden, of edibles and flowers for cutting that will also draw pollinators. I want it to be pretty as well as productive. I've grown both zinnias and calendulas before, and they're easy and hardy. Of the seeds I planted earlier in the spring, only the lupines seem to be doing well --- I might try something in a new container now, when the soil is warmer, and see if that helps. I am glad to have another round of lupines, which I think I'll just leave in the grow bag where they're sprouting now. They won't bloom this year, but they should bloom next year. My last-year's lupines are mostly in the front-yard planter and are quite large. The last-year's evening primrose are all blooming now, beautifully --- I have some that obviously reseeded itself in the ground around the stump in the kitchen garden, as well as the big pot I sowed last year, plus plants I've moved from that pot into other planters. And again, I have high hopes for last year's lupines, which look very healthy and will, I hope, bloom a long time into the summer.
Here's the kitchen garden yesterday afternoon, before I planted anything new:
I have garlic and some self-sowed cilantro growing in that Rubbermaid tub by the gate, and beets and carrots in grow bags toward the driveway fence. Blackberries and gooseberries along the fence. Blueberries along the outside perimeter on the backyard side. Mulberries in the tree by the drive.
Still lots of lettuce growing on the patio --- we had a delicious fresh salad with dinner last night:
Lots of weeds in the kitchen garden, but at least the grow bags mean the plants stay relatively tidy and weed-free (at least until weed seeds blow into the grow bags):
I might really just make a paved seating area at the far end there, and then fill in around that a little with more containers, eventually. Dora and I very much like sitting there at the moment, in the sunshine. I do need to weed some . . . not the part of gardening I do very consistently at all.
We'll see, of course, what winds up doing well and what does not. This time of year I'm always full of great hopes and visions, but inevitably some things fail. But then some things don't fail. It's always a gamble, but always there's some grace involved.
Today's high: 71F, about 10 degrees cooler than yesterday. So far it's overcast and soft outside.
The day's agenda:
*hair wash
*dog walk (with weighted vest --- trying to get back in the saddle, consistently, with the weighted vest)
*finish an essay
*water the garden if it doesn't rain
*out to the pub tonight with friends
Wearing:
*Wool& Brooklyn dress (S/Long) in Pacific, bought May 2023, last worn --- January 16?? Is that possible?? Is it possible that I have worn this dress only ONCE all year??
*Kosher Casuals teal crop top, bought 2023
*Secondhand Birk Mayaris, year 2
OK. Wow. I love this dress, and yet apparently I have not chosen to wear it AT ALL since January 16, and I didn't wear it in the first two weeks of January, either. Why is this?
1. Well, so, six weeks of 2025 have been taken up by Lent, during which I worn ONLY purple and neutrals (with the exception of pale pink, sometimes), rather than anything that went with purple. I have worn this dress in previous Lents and Advents, because the green does look very nice with purple, but this Lent I did not. So that's one explanation.
2. I don't love these Brooklyn dresses layered for winter as much as I love them on their own with a pair of sandals (and, in this case, a crop top, because I'm just not feeling cleavage --- I really might put a stitch in both these Brookyln bodices sometime soon, to hold them in place). This green Brooklyn layers better with items in my closet than the Beetroot one does, but in the early cold months of this year, I clearly opted for other dresses to layer instead.
3. There are many situations when I simply don't choose a dress this low-cut. I love how flatteringly this design sits on my body, but I'm also self-conscious about the neckline and what I'm revealing. That means that I have not chosen this dress for conferences and events, even though it's one of the prettiest and, again, most flattering dresses I own. I really think they might have stitched down the surplice bodice without sacrificing the reversible possibilities of the dress (which I don't like nearly as much worn backwards, I must say, though I have worn it that way). And while a crop top does take care of that feeling of exposure, it also makes the dress read differently --- it's less polished. I would ADORE to find a bralette or camisole with a higher neckline, that would provide actual coverage without being quite as visible, but so far, sadly, I have not found that bralette or camisole. In the meantime, I can feel bothered by how much this neckline moves around.
4. This is going to sound like the same line item as the previous two line items, but I think it's different: I was wearing my Ocean Teal Willow and my Aegean Teal Maggie because I felt that I should be wearing them. When I wanted a dress in this color family, I was reaching for those dresses, even though I never like the look of them on my body the way I like the look of this dress. Some of that is simply comfort zone (see #3). But some of it was just that I felt I had to wear these other choices. With those dresses technically out of my closet (Willow is up for sale, Maggie is a nightgown/house dress), we'll see how much more I wear this one.
Today I'm wearing my Huha bike-short underwear with my dress --- again, you can compare with Tuesday, when I was wearing a much thinner pair of bamboo bike shorts. I dislike how thick these Huha bike shorts are when it comes to washing and drying, but I do like that they provide some subtle smoothing and compression. They're not shapewear, but other than the waistband, which could be flatter, they present the same kind of under-surface as a slip. I did wear a silk half-slip under my dress the other day, and that made a good bit of difference, but I'd rather not have to do that.
It could also just be that this dress, though technically the same size as the Beetroot, is just a hair bigger. Sizing in Wool& can be quite inconsistent, not only from dress style to dress style, but from dress to dress in the same design, depending on what "generation" you're buying. The Beetroot Brooklyn came from a later production batch than this Pacific one did, and that could account for slight differences in fit. OR this one has just relaxed more with more wear. Although I haven't worn it much yet this year, I have worn it quite heavily in the almost-two previous years that I've owned it. It's gone to Norway twice. It's made numerous road trips. It's gone to the mountains and the coast. And quite possibly, it's just stretched out more with all that wear.
Anyway, this is one of the dresses I was most excited to reunite with at the end of Lent, and I'm happy to be wearing it today.
A LITTLE LATER
Well, our walk lasted about 3 and a half minutes before --- and this is fortunate --- I heard the approach of the rain through the trees at the foot of the park loop. We stroke briskly home, Dora and I, and bolted up the driveway just as the heavens let loose. Now she's in her crate, resting again after breakfast, and I'm sitting by the window watching the rain fall, fall, fall. It's watering my garden, and this is good --- though of course it's watering the weeds, too. Rain isn't terribly selective.
I've walked up and down the stairs a few times in my weighted vest, just to get more of a workout in. I'm still wearing it, in fact, even as I sit here, so that the very act of rising from this chair will become a resistance exercise. I'm going to have to switch to some more waterproof shoes as well --- my Birks didn't get too wet, but they are kind of slimy at the moment, and drying out. The air feels cooler than it is, and in the house I'm grateful for a light sweater over my dress.
Here's the outfit, with and without the weighted vest (I did put on the sweater to walk as well, and vest over that, to protect my dress from rubbing):
This sweater-dress combo is very Norway 2023. I really should remember it for the cold weather, because this is a layered look I like, that would in fact go quite well with boots and tights. I don't know why I didn't think of it in January and February. NOTE TO SELF.
I'd also like to remember to wear these Xero Jessie sandals more often. They are really cute, even with my awful bunion --- I just have to suck it up and lose the self-consciousness about my misshapen foot, or else not wear sandals. Think I'll be choosing the sandals.
Anyway, yeah, this sweater is so great for travel, and it's also good just to pop over a dress when the house feels chilly. It's warm but lightweight, a blend of merino, mohair, cotton, and I forget what else, and I like the variegated greens in the yarn. I truly don't wear it often enough in cold weather, and I'm not sure why not. I wound up putting it on evening before last with my Beetroot Brooklyn, and I'm liking it now with this green one. AGAIN, why do I not think to do this when the weather is cold? I truly don't know. Maybe I think it's not going to be warm enough? While it's not as warm as, say, my green Connemara cardigan, it is a good insulating layer.
And it's fun over the skirts of elastic-waist dresses, more so than with swing dresses. I've worn it fairly often over my Teal Fiona, and could just as readily wear it with the Marine Blue one (again: why did I not think of this when the weather was cold?). ANOTHER NOTE TO SELF.
I really don't feel at all like working . . . I just want to fiddle about, thinking trivial thoughts. Does it count that I read about two paragraphs on the Elizabethan poet Thomas Nashe? I suppose I might answer that question differently on Monday, given that I have to have an essay on Nashe written for Tuesday. But I DON'T WANT TO.
AFTERNOON UPDATE
Well, I have done some research and ground out some paragraphs about Thomas Nashe, so I think I deserve a break.
Dora and I went for a half-hour's walk in light rain, and now she's passed out beside me on the daybed. I had on my weighted vest and really felt the workout in my core and quads. Ten pounds is not that much --- I really want to upgrade to twenty before too long. But it does make some difference. I've got to remember to wear it again when we walk tonight.
Nice written back-and-forth with another poet whom I like a lot.
Still comfortable in my sweater. It's warm out, but not very --- and it's quite damp. I think I'll be glad to be wearing a sweater in the pub tonight. I might even add a jean jacket, just to jazz things up.
I am bored and ready to go out --- Lent passed pretty quickly, to be honest, and it's not as though we never went out, but I have missed our Thursday nights. It's been a while since we last saw the friends we're meeting, and I'm glad to be festive and on the town again. Home is a good place to work and be, but even for me the walls can start to close in sometimes.
Working on plans for the kids' graduation: hotel rooms are booked, and I just need to sort out who's going to the on-campus reception the night before the graduation. We have a lot of short jaunts forthcoming --- next weekend to see the Viking's senior one-act play project, then the weekend after for the Artgirls' senior gallery opening, and then the weekend after that for graduation. I feel a little tired just thinking about it all. But it'll all be good, if surreal. How can these people be that grown up? How can we have no more undergraduate children? They might both go to graduate school, but they won't have this experience ever again, and that's something, the end of a whole era.
I think I shall ponder that while I putter about the house and maybe do some sweeping and then drink some more water because I need to that . . . and then eventually it'll be time to go out.