Garden still-life, with statue my parents bought maybe before I was born.
Here are the beans, contemplating their poles, with some clustered zinnia seedlings in the background:
And here are flourishing beet greens:
Beets are easy to grow --- the seeds germinate quickly and reliably, and the only problem really is giving the root enough room to round out nicely (a problem in this planter, in fact --- I need to thin them out). The good news is that even if you don't like beets, the greens are delicious for salads (when very small and tender) and for any dish in which you might otherwise use spinach. I often grow beets just for the greens.
Today's agenda:
*Dora to vet shortly
*Spend day recovering from going to vet
That's basically it. I have work I can be doing, but it's not immediately pressing. The weather again is rainy --- we had thunderstorms in the night --- so I'm not sure we'll be hanging out outside much, except on the porch.
Wearing:
*Secondhand Japanese linen pinafore, bought fall 2023, last worn April 25. Wears in 2025: 3
*Secondhand Icebreaker 100% merino tee, year 1 of wear
*Thrifted Crocs sandals, year 2 of wear
LATER
This was a good outfit for the vet, with the dog walking and climbing all over me in terror. The linen (or linen-blend) pinafore is good and thick and sturdy, which is why I thought I'd wear it today. The merino tee travels well from steamy outdoors to air conditioning and back again.
We hate going to the vet, but honestly, they are as good and kind as anybody could be. They got us into a room fast, the tech did my checkout for me so we didn't have to encounter any dogs on the way out, and they let us exit through the back, so again we didn't come face to face with reactivity triggers. Dora was not at all sure about these people poking and sticking her with needles (well, not at all sure is not at all true --- she was very sure how she felt about them), but once the ordeal was over, the muzzle was off, and treats were on offer, it was where have you been all my life?
She's now all vaccinated --- her rabies was due as well as yearly shots --- and we have fresh heartworm meds on the way. WHEW. It was an intense hour, but it's over now, and we hope we don't have to go back for another year.
The sun has come out, so everything's steaming, but it is nice to have some real light. We might go out and walk later on, but right now we're just recovering, one of us in her crate, the other of us in her comfy Ikea chair.
So anyway, for an outfit I threw on in a hurry to withstand a vet visit, I really like this. As always, the loose earthy pinafore scratches my overalls itch. I want overalls, but I don't really want overalls --- chiefly because I don't want trousers. I don't like the way they feel. I don't like the way they look on my body. I just like the sexy little idea of a pair of baggy overalls and some little flirty top underneath. And lo, in this pinafore I can have the sexy little idea all I want, without the bother of trousers.
Actually, this top is not that flirty. It's just comfortable. But I cut out the neckline, so it's not not . . . something. The fit is fairly slim, too, so I don't have a baggy shape over a baggy shape, which is key. Ideally, I think, the principle is one baggy shape (if any) per outfit. You wear a baggy top over a straight skirt. You wear a slim top under a baggy blazer. You wear something relatively fitted --- a camisole is perfect --- under an oversized pinafore or pair of overalls. Again, this tee isn't as fitted as a cami, but it's slim enough that it works.
I also like the dusty navy against the earthy tan --- that feels like a nice, comfortable color combination. My Crocs add some tonal layering: not a contrast, but not a match, either, just a darker shade in the same tone as my pinafore. There's some pattern, too, in both the texture of the pinafore and the geometric graphic on the tee, which doesn't show up well in the photos above, but is there.
I guess it's a measure of how fried I am that all I want to talk or think about is clothing. I'm interested in clothes all the time, but after an academic year of more travel than usual, plus the grind of a 5-day-a-week Substack, plus all this back-and-forth to Dallas, I'm hitting the wall, and my brain just wants to take refuge in something comfortable (my body ALWAYS wants to take refuge in something comfortable, hence my entire wardrobe).
So I'm going to talk about clothing. And think about clothing. Because it's pleasurable and easy, and my brain, at least, needs some kind of vacation.
I have bought another pair of shoes --- blue patterned Alegria Daynas, which are a Mary Jane shoe with a sort of slanted double strap, instead of the single strap across the instep. I have some black Alegria Paloma Mary Janes which I like and should wear more often, but which I really bought for occasions when I need to wear black. They are comfortable and cute, but a little stark for much of my wardrobe --- though again, I should remember to wear them. Meanwhile, I thought that blue shoes would work with just about everything I have, with a less stark level of contrast, so that I might wear them more in the summer as well as the winter.
I've just about decided that my Earth Shoe Mary Janes aren't working for me and will either resell or donate them. They've got a lot of wear left in them, but I don't know that they're in great enough shape to be worth the trouble of selling them. Something about the insole bothers me every time I wear them, and --- worse --- gives me knee pain. Alegrias have a weird platform sole, but they are very comfortable and easy to walk in as well as cute, and blue will be a good color to have. I can't remember the last time I had a pair of blue shoes, but you'd think that would be a no-brainer for me. I might get some brown ones for fall as well, but we'll see. There's that whole swath of time when it's too hot for boots but I don't feel like sandals, and why I am thinking about that NOW is a real mystery, but there you have it --- except that I do sometimes like to wear closed-toed shoes, even in the summer, and it is nice to have options.
The husband pruned this tree last year, taking out the tall, dead top, and we've encouraged new branches to grow lower down. The canopy could be higher, but I like the overhanging branches that screen the sun from my plants that like shade. Now I just need to go weed the actual shade garden at the other end of this back walkway area --- what we call our "dooryard," because it is fenced and gated from the rest of the backyard --- ay ay ay. That garden is a mess. I would like to plant some encore azaleas in that area, but it's probably too late already for them to establish before the summer heat starts to stress them out. The azalea pictured above seems happy enough in its 10-gallon container, as long as we keep it watered. I do love container gardens . . . if I had it to do over, I'd do nothing else. It's amazing how lush a patio can become, just with big containers of growing things. strategically placed.