Summer flowers on the kitchen table: black-eyed Susan, calendula (the closed flower), and several Bright Lights cosmos self-sowed from last year and blooming now.
I was up early this morning to be at choir warmup in Gastonia at 7:45. It was a lovely Mass --- we sang a lot of chant, good hymns, and Tallis's "If Ye Love Me" --- though for regular parishioners a bittersweet farewell to Fr. Rossi, who is moving from St. Michael's to the parish in Waynesville.
Came home to find that the husband had rented a chainsaw. He has been busy all day taking out the volunteer mulberry trees that have been overshadowing the kitchen garden --- now the far end gets enough sun for me to plant things there. Next February I plan to put two rows of blueberries in that space, but for now I might just fill some more grow bags and start considering late-summer and fall crops.
My yellow squash is about played out, and I'm not sure how much I'm going to get from the eggplant I planted --- I picked a tiny one yesterday and added it to the mixed roasted vegetables (tossed with goat cheese and strips of marinated steak) we had for dinner, but there's only one more very tiny one on the plant, and the bugs have really been at it despite my spraying with neem oil. So I can and should clear out that row against the fence by the back walk as well, and think about what I want to put in for the rest of the season. Carrots and beets I've sown lately haven't done anything --- I guess it's too hot --- but I might try again come August, for fall harvests. I could try Brussels sprouts again as well. Meanwhile, the grape tomatoes are bearing really well, we have Asian green beans, and the blackberries continue apace. I do still have some beets and carrots in the ground as well. All in all, it's been a decent garden year so far, and I have beautiful flowers growing, such as the ones I picked for our dinner table last night.
Wearing today, for Mass and beyond:
*Secondhand Not Perfect Linen Leila dress (M/L) in Chocolate Brown, bought December 2023, last worn July 2. Wears in 2025: 5. Making up for lost time with this dress, which I inexplicably didn't wear at all for the first three months of this year. Getting its miles in now, though.
*Secondhand Eileen Fisher silk-rayon cardigan, year 1 of wear
*Thrifted Crocs, year 2
And again: this is a great dress. It's so easy to overlook in the closet --- the color reads, I guess, as not that exciting --- but once on, it's magic. The fabric is so beautiful. You can see the play of morning light on its folds and surfaces, soft and unassuming but lovely in its subtlety. This dress was perfect for Mass with a cardigan (which I was glad I had, because the church was chilly, but I notice that in that parish people aren't quite so uptight about covering your shoulders as they are in my own local parish), but now I'm wearing her just as she comes.
After lunch, I pulled a few weeds in the garden, then read a little True Grit --- as I might have noted before, this makes an interesting pairing with all the Norse literature I've been reading.
Thinking about my packing for Nova Scotia, too. I hope I can find the little stuff sack my rain pants came in, so that I can stuff them back in it to pack. My new cheap rain shell, also with its stuff sack, should be arriving today. I'm thinking about those things because they represent less room taken up in my pack this trip than on previous travels when I've packed rain gear, and I'm jazzed about that. Even leaving room at the top of the pack for my cross-body bag, so that I don't have to deal with two items going through security or on the plane, I should have ample space for probably more than I strictly need for ten days in Nova Scotia in July.
Again, the dresses I contemplate taking:
*Teal Fiona (the absolute travel champ)
*Marine Blue Fiona (ditto, though she hasn't had as many opportunities yet to prove her mettle)
And then:
*lightweight green wool pullover (another travel champ)
*gray-blue tencel-merino leggings
*Z-Trek sandals
*Crocs
*Green Oswegos &/or Mesa Trailrunner hiking shoes (I'm not sure I need both . . .)
*socks & underwear
*outerwear/raingear
All this I can fit in my carry-on, plus laptop and the book I'm going to need to read from for the online fiction reading I'm scheduled to do that last night we're there (no, I did not intend to give an online reading in Nova Scotia --- dates just worked out that way).
It's funny how tempted I am to buy a new dress for this trip. I do not need a new dress. At all. I need to wear the dresses I have. I am amply provided for here, and I'm not so tempted that I'm going to cave --- but it is interesting to note how various things (holidays, travel plans, any shift in your life at all, really) can trigger that sensation of needing something new. The good thing about being aware of it is . . . that you're aware of it, so you can interrogate it, and you can say to your triggered brain, "You know, this is an impulse we're having here, but an impulse is not a mandate."
Anyway. I think all the dresses on my travel-capsule list are clean and ready to go, but I should look them over this week in case anything needs a quick wash and brush-up. Meanwhile, I have plenty of clothes to wear that are not included in that travel capsule:
*NPL Grape Wine Smock dress
*floral linen-cotton pinafore
*L.L. Bean linen skirt + linen tank
*NPL Dark Blue-Gray Smock dress
and more, but that's how many days I have to get dressed before I get on the plane.