I know I take essentially this photo all the time. But I never tire of this exact moment of the morning (it's not quite 7:30 right now) when the sun strikes the back porch and this curtain, and the whole corner is washed in filtered light. We think of the "golden hour" as belonging to the evening, but the morning has its golden hour as well.
I really need to strip the pet cover and top sheet off the daybed today and wash them --- the cover is smelling (as it inevitably does) quite doggy. I don't know what it is about that material that holds smells . . . well, I guess I do know. It's polyester. BUT it's waterproof and provides an extra protective layer for the mattress beneath, a thing I do value. If I'm going to let the dog on a piece of furniture (and this is the only indoor furniture she's allowed on, other than whatever chair I'm sitting in), then the furniture needs to be protected from the dog. This is especially true if, at any point, another person is going to be sleeping on said furniture.
Anyway. I have another jersey full-sized sheet that I can use as a top sheet, so that the bed will be covered while I wash these. That's the main "house" thing I think I'd like to accomplish today, although honestly, some vacuuming would not go amiss. There is so. much. dog. hair.
At Mass yesterday, we ran into a man we had met last summer at dinner with some friends, who was new to the area then and has since bought a house in our town. We've invited him over for drinks, which makes me a little nervous, simply because he is --- as conversation over dinner last summer made clear --- the kind of person who REALLY fixes up houses and is kind of a perfectionist about how they look, and our house . . . well, let's just say that among other things, Dora has been very rough on the front porch screens. She's currently in behavior boot camp, in fact --- basically on-leash all the time she's out of the crate and attached to me, so that she can't jump on the screen door every time a dog passes on the street outside while we're sitting on the porch. If only I had done this earlier, we might not have holes and rents in our screens, but anyway. This new neighbor will simply have to overlook the scruffy in our scruffy hospitality. Or I will.
Today I've got to finish and upload an essay for tomorrow and at least think about one more for the week. I've got Friday's basically laid out and just need to run my eye over it before I choose the art and load it all up. THEN I can MAYBE make some headway on this stupid book review I said I'd write.
What else? It's going to be warm today, in the upper 80s Farenheit. I've switched my post label to just plain summer, because now that Pentecost is past, there's no point in pretending that the summer hasn't come. The spring freshness has given way to heavier air. The mornings and evenings are still cool, but for how much longer?
Today is the memorial of Mary Mother of the Church, which is some impetus for me to get out and go to daily Mass. I keep trying to climb onto that wagon, and I keep falling off it, but since today is a feast, maybe I should make the effort. So whatever I decide to put on today, it should be something I can wear in church. Otherwise, it can be cool and minimal, because the day is going to be warm. I think I have an idea already, but as the husband is still asleep, I can't go crashing into our room to get my clothes out. It'll have to wait while I play Wordle and eat some yogurt . . .
ONE HOUR LATER
The husband is up, and so I am dressed.
Wearing today:
*Secondhand Not Perfect Linen Leila dress (M/L) in Chocolate Brown, bought December 2023, last worn May 28 (when it was cool enough that I wanted a cashmere pullover in the evening!). Wears in 2025: 3
*Secondhand Xero Z-Trek sandals, first year of wear
*For Mass: secondhand Eileen Fisher sillk-rayon cardigan, first year of wear
One of my goals in the warm weather is to WEAR THIS DRESS MORE. I truly do love it. And I'm inclined to say that if I love a dress, I should wear it AT LEAST 12 times in a calendar year. If I don't wear it once a month (or at a rate that breaks down to once a month), then how much do I love it (assuming it's not a special-occasion piece)?
I don't want to make a rule of this inclination, because I could find that I've backed myself into a corner, where I believe I have to resell something because I'm "not reaching for it." That seems like the way to seller's remorse. Although I tend not to sell things until I am very sure I want to sell them, still I can all too readily envision talking myself into passing something along that I don't actually want to let go.
I know I overlook this dress because of the color. But that's a tendency that lasts only until I put it on. The idea of wearing a brown dress (which seems boring) is not the same as actually wearing this brown dress, which is not boring, but simple. The color seems to highlight the construction of the dress, which I adore. When I wear my Cinnamon Rose Leila dress, it's the color I'm focused on, because it's such a weird, magical pink. But what I really notice when I wear this dress is the fit (which is slightly larger than the other dress, and possibly a tad better, now that I've had the shoulders adjusted) and the silhouette.
And as I've noted before, the brown itself is surprisingly lovely. I bought this dress intending to dye it, but then I didn't, and I'm glad I didn't. This quite un-orange brown is good with my skin tone, so that I love wearing it on its own in the hot weather. But it's also a terrific canvas for other colors. I'm enjoying the pop of teal on my feet today, for instance. And soft pinks are gorgeous with it. I bought this blush-pink cardigan back in the winter before Lent, thinking I'd wear it a lot with this dress, but today is the first time I've actually put them together. I already knew that I loved my candy-pink wool cardigan with this dress, but it's good to see that the blush pink works just as well, and that the shape is as I had hoped: drapey enough and not too boxy to obscure the line of the dress.
I also find that I'm subconsciously saving these linen dresses for "special" --- for Sundays, for parties --- when really they're just so good to wear day to day. This style particularly reads to me as "party dress," because of the twirly skirt and the bow-tied sash (though I don't HAVE to tie it in a bow, I don't guess . . .), but why not wear it to walk the dog? It's a dress I feel good in every time I put it on, so I should resist that impulse to save it for some other day. Today is just as good a day. Today is a special day, in fact, simply because it is a day the Lord has made. Why not dress as though it were special?
MIDDAY
Welp, no Mass. Father seems to have changed his day off back to Mondays, effective this week. So I guess tomorrow, too, I should plan to wear something church-appro.
At least I feel all swirly and pretty. And I've finished one essay and am updating my writing finances spreadsheet, which I keep for tax purposes, before I dive into the next one --- which again is about done, just needs rereading and touchups before I choose art and load it into the site for Friday. That leaves me Thursday's poem to do, but I hope not to belabor that too much.
