Morning sun on the hoary mountain mint. As you see, this is not a showy plant in terms of color. But in big stands --- which is what you will inevitably get if you plant hoary mountain mint --- it's surprisingly striking and impressive, with its silvery foliage and little subtle white flowers. It makes a lovely shimmer in the border, on its way to taking over the border, which it will do unless the border is composed of other kinds of mint also bent on taking over. They tell you never to plant mint in your landscape, and . . . well, too late for me. But it keeps weeds down, I tell you what. And it smells divine in the rain or when the sun is warming it. You could do a lot worse than have your outdoor environment taken over by varieties of mint.
It's Monday, I have three essays to knock out for next week, and the sun is shining, but not quite as hard as it was shining last week, pressing the temperatures up to the triple-digit mark. Today's high is supposed to be 89F, which is certainly warm but still livable. I think I'm going to go to a choir practice tonight, to sing for a farewell Mass next Sunday at St. Michael's, where there's a change of pastors.
The Viking arrives tomorrow for a visit of several days, during which he has scheduled a number of appointments for himself. We look forward to seeing him. His room is as pristine as it has ever been, and is ready to receive him. The Fire Son, meanwhile, reports that someone has shot at wildland firefighters responding to a forest fire in Idaho, killing two of them, which --- good Lord have mercy is all I can say. Naturally I texted him back to ask, "Where are you right now?" Because I actually don't know. We were messaging each other last night about books, and I didn't stop to think about where he might be, which generally is a good rule. You can't live your life obsessing about the danger your loved ones might be in, because truly, life is fraught with danger. We get into our cars, not thinking about statistics. But who in the name of all things bright and beautiful shoots first responders at a fire?
UPDATE: This is the story. Apparently the shooter set the fire to lure the firefighters into ambush so he could shoot them. What. The. Hell. And they weren't Forest Service wildland fire workers, but local Fire and Rescue --- not that that makes a big difference, except that I think Forest Service crews, especially hotshots, smoke jumpers, etc, would be harder to lure like that, because they don't respond as immediately to alarms. That would be local guys. But it's awful and sick, regardless. Who gets up in the morning and thinks, "Today is the day I take out the Fire and Rescue?"
So, America is having a normal one, as always.
Yeah, now to segue into the totally trivial . . . no good way to do that, really. But I've got to let the dog out soon, so here is what in horsemanship is known as the flying lead change . . .
Wearing today:
*Wool& Maggie dress (S/Long) in Aegean Teal, bought May 2023, last worn as a dress the first week in February, but worn frequently as a nightgown over the last six months. No idea how many wears in 2025, because I don't track nightgown wears.
*Secondhand Xero Z-Trek sandals, year 1
Day before yesterday, I gave Maggie a good hand-washing in Dr. Bronner's, rolled her up in a towel to remove excess water, and hung her over the drying rack to dry. So here she is, clean and fresh and ready to roll.
As I've said, I've kind of gone off swing dresses, feeling that I look better in a dress with some kind of defined waist. That's still true, but it's nice to revisit this dress. I bought it two years ago when another dress --- my first attempt at a Sofia --- didn't work out (nor did my second attempt; I have now conceded Sofia defeat). I had the credit, and this is what I did with it.
For whatever reason, this dress has taken a real beating in the time I've had it. I've mended multiple little holes, plus a slice just above the hem, sustained somehow in Norway on our first trip there in 2023. I think there are more little holes that I just haven't bothered to mend. For all that, though, she really looks pretty good. I have seen photos of myself in this dress that have made me think, Ugh, no, what was I thinking, but today I don't think that at all. Maybe I've dropped some inches, so that she hangs better. I don't know. But she is cool and breezy and probably at her true best with just a pair of fun sandals.
For the summer, anyway, and maybe into the fall, I'm pulling her back into the rotation. Aegean Teal is my favorite Wool& color. And as a Small size, this dress definitely has less volume than other swing dresses I've owned. I did have a Maggie in a Medium Long that I wanted to love and wore for a couple of years . . . but in the end I had to concede that it was too much fabric and not doing me favors. I do like loose and voluminous dresses (see NPL Smock, for example), but I have found that I really like for them to have some tailoring to structure the volume. A loose-fitting knit dress can feel shapeless. But . . . you know, sometimes what you want to wear is basically a t-shirt, and that is what this dress is.
I continue to love the graceful scoop neck and the close-fitting short sleeves, that elevate the silhouette beyond the square (and, to me, unflattering and uninspiring) "basic t-shirt."
And she fills the void normally occupied by my two Sierra dresses, which I find I can't wear as comfortably in these temperatures. I think I'd still wear Iris Blue Sierra to hike, because she's short and close-fitting, and in mountain air I think she'd be okay. But down here in the Piedmont, I want to wear thin, weightless things. This fabric may be wool, but it is thin and weightless and breathable, not to mention moisture-wicking, and I can cope with it just fine.
And now it is time to cope with it on a dog walk.
UPDATE
Been out for a warm walk with the dog, who is now passed out on the daybed beside me after a training session indoors on our return. We're working on the "place" command: to go to and remain on a mat until released. Going to the mat is relatively easy, but staying there, having the self-control to wait to be released, is a lot harder. Currently I have her mat (which I bought to be the crate mat for the upstairs crate, but we might as well get used to it, I thought) in the kitchen, so that a) there will potentially be distractions, such as people sitting down to eat, and b) it's a good central location in the house with some room to move around.
We've only been doing this for a couple of days, so she's still not completely clear on the "place" command to begin with. I've begun by luring her to her place with a treat, then saying "place" and rewarding her when she sits there. She does know "stay," so I can work on the "break" command that releases her from the place by letting her know that she is supposed to keep sitting there even if I walk away. Again, how long she will stay there before her impulse to move overtakes her better intentions is an open question. But we can work on it. It's a good thing to have some kind of indoor training project in the hot weather, to wear her out a little more.
She doesn't usually pass out like this in the mornings --- note to self to attach this training session to the end of our walk, so that I can get a little more un-crazy-dog time before I need to crate her for her first meal of the day (other than treats). Her routine for a long time has been walk-meal/crate-nap-release, on repeat through the day, usually with about a 2-hour enforced nap in the crate, which is how I get anything done. I don't want to resort to long days in the crate, though, and I'd like to be able to leave her out until I'm ready to eat lunch at noon, THEN have a naptime.
This kind of routine works well for us, not only in our everyday life, but when we have dogsitters, so that walk/crate does not come as a shock to her system. She totally expects that rhythm in her day: get out, go for a walk, have some together time, then back in for a rest. Our being out of town means that she does have longer periods in the crate, but the basic sequence of events is not a significant departure from what she accepts as normal, which is key. Dogs like routine. They thrive on consistency. They want to know what to expect and what you expect them to do --- when they know, they behave better. When things are unexpected, they're confused and stressed. Being in the crate on a predictable, regular basis is a lot less stressful than having to be confined unexpectedly in some emergency situation.
Note: when she is freaked out at night by fireworks or thunder, I do not typically let her out of the crate, even though I do feel very sorry for her. Instead, I come and sit with her so she's not alone while she calms down. Eventually, with my presence, she does self-soothe and go to sleep. And then we don't have to re-train the whole crate thing to get our sanity back.
This, incidentally, is very similar to my approach to getting babies to sleep --- an approach I didn't really settle into until I was about 3 babies in. Our first two just slept with us and would nurse to sleep in the night. Our third, the Viking . . . would not do that. He was born in England, came back with us to the U.S. for his baptism when he was 4 months old, then when we went back to England, was completely turned around and would not sleep at night. I tried putting him in bed with me, as I had done with the others, and he thought: Hey, hey, the gang's all here, it's party time!
He slept in a crib in our room, so there was no question of his ever being left alone to cry it out. But after a couple of months of this, clearly something had to give before we all went mental. So I did two things:
1. I fed him on more of a schedule than I had ever done with anyone else. He was about 6 months old by this time, so starting to eat some solids. I was also more comfortable giving him a bottle of formula, after some months of exclusive nursing. My aim was to make sure that he was eating enough during the day --- and he was old enough, with a big enough stomach, to do this --- that I could be pretty sure that if he woke at night, it wasn't because he was hungry.
2. When he woke up and cried at night, I didn't nurse him. I did respond. At first I picked him up and rocked him for a few minutes, then put him back in bed without nursing. Eventually I just got up, patted him, spoke to him, and went back to bed. Mind you, this was not all peaceful. We had one or two nights with a lot of crying --- which did not go ignored, but did not get met with some incentive to build a habit of waking up. We really had to un-make a habit --- and it was hard. But after a couple of nights, he did sleep through.
So that's more or less my dog approach as well. I don't want to leave her alone to be scared. I know she's scared --- when she fusses in her crate at night, she has a reason (the other major reason is that her stomach is upset and she needs to go out NOW). But --- upset stomach aside --- my goal is to reinforce the habit of being in the crate when she needs to be in the crate: for example, when we all need to sleep. AND my goal is to reinforce her ability to calm herself down, not be wound up more by more interaction, or induced to believe that getting up at night is a good thing, because you get treats when you get up at night. NOPE.
I'm thinking about all this because I know I will be putting it into practice this week. SIGH.
Seems like there was something else I was thinking about, but I don't remember what it was. It had to do with clothing, but it's gone now.
Oh, I remember:
I wanted to try on this dress with some skirts over. I have worn it and liked it with my red linen-blend maxi, but what about my other two current skirts? One thing I find longer skirts really useful for is transforming shorter dresses into outfits with more leg coverage, so I thought I'd take a minute to experiment with my new L.L. Bean linen maxi skirt and the long natural-linen skirt I rescued out of the outbox and wore to church yesterday.
Here's the L.L. Bean skirt with this dress worn as a "top" ---
This skirt is fairly close-fitting, and the dress pockets create a little more bulk than is completely ideal, but on the whole, I like this. The teal plays well with the periwinkle blue pattern. A little more skirt room through the hips would be an improvement, but this can work.
And the Christopher&Banks natural linen (actually it's some kind of blend):
This works pretty solidly. I like it.
So, there you go. Good thing I rescued Maggie from nightgown-dom. She remains a useful dress. I'm still sleeping in my old Camellia dress, which is the best summer nightgown I have, being lightweight and sleeveless. Not that I would never wear Camellia as a dress again, but she is pretty battered and thin at this point --- and her blue dye rubs off a little more than I would love. I would not wear her under either of these skirts for that reason, for example.
Anyway, versatility is a virtue in clothing.
ALSO
I've chucked Sylvia Townsend Warner in favor of Charles Portis and True Grit. The Fire Son has been reading his way through all of Charles Portis lately, and he talked me into picking up, at last, this classic, which I have been meaning to read for years anyway.
AFTERNOON UPDATE
It's Monday, and obviously I'm easing into the week. We're scheduled only into next week on the Substack, so there's no reason for me to beat myself up to get ahead. Next week, yes, I will need to begin to to do that, but not this week. And I've done a little work of my own.
I have ordered groceries for the first time in a while --- I just need food for the week to show up here. I've made the bed and done some minor tidying. I've re-shared all my active Poshmark closet listings, hoping to make some more sales. The dog and I have been on a roughly quarter-mile walk around the perimeter of the college across the street, which is enough in the heat, then came back and practiced "place" again for about five minutes. Now she's settled on the daybed beside me, having had her breakfast, her crate nap, another walk, and another learning session --- it's a pain, sometimes, to have to remember to do all these things, but when I do them, the reward is better dog behavior in the house.
Speaking of Poshmark, here is a listing I have my eye on. I'd love to see if she comes down any on the price before I seriously consider, but even at the current listing price, the discount is very good, and I have thought I'd like to try this dress. It would be a good summer dress --- I do have gee, I'm hot in my Sierra on the brain right now --- but the midi length would be easy to layer in the fall, winter, and spring as well. Not that I need another dress, but we'll see.