"this feeling rolling in, sunshine or rain, we don’t know yet,"
No Name - Emily Berry | Lambrusco spritz | Clue Perfumery Morel Map
Poem
No Name - Emily Berry
What can I tell you? It was a summer that seemed to be
making history — their personal history — almost before
it began, and they stood back slightly, still in it, but
observing it, saying “the summer this,” “the summer that,”
all the while it was going on. They became obsessed with
a fountain, for example, one they walked past each day,
how abundantly it would reach upwards and yet be pouring
back down itself the whole time — all winter this fountain
had been dry, not saying a word. What more can I tell you?
Oh, everything — like how they would walk home in
the evenings when the light was soft, anything bad sliding
off them, and they would feel owned, completely owned,
in a good way, by the air, which would touch them constantly,
sometimes urgently, sometimes lightly, just to let them know
it was there, and they would think maybe this is what being
alive is, when they saw how complicated a tree was and how
it wanted them looking at it and saying this, how the color
of a particular flower at this particular moment was redder
even than the life force, whatever that is, if you could open
it up and get right down inside it, if you could put your mouth
to it and become as red as that rose even, it was still redder
than that, and they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves
so they wouldn’t do anything except listen to the songs in their
heads which were sad ones like nearly all good songs and watch
this feeling rolling in, sunshine or rain, we don’t know yet,
it’s a good one, it’s the best one, though it has no name.
Beverage
Lambrusco spritz
I was at Whole Foods last night and saw a decent bottle of Lambrusco on sale. I was still wet in a red maillot under shorts and a tee, my hair looked crazy, sunglasses on my head. My elbow was scraped from going down waterslides with a three year old all afternoon. I decided it was worth doing another lap of the store in my sorry state to get the ingredients for Lambrusco spritzes. Worth it!
Scent
Clue Perfumery Morel Map
Friend of the newsletter Courtney Byelich recommended this small maker, and I ordered the sampler pack. The scents all had a vibe that resists my summer preferences, but this one is given the tag "The hunt begins in spring, when Wisconsin’s soil grows warm and damp." And that is very accurate. A little animalistic, a little green, a little woody. But I will come back to this in fall, a wet leaves and cigarette smoke kind of smell.
Now playing via Spotify "daylist"
Other things
a big knot
Okay, this one is late because last night, I was fixated on untangling a giant knot. Literally. A big knot of cotton yarn. I don't know what to tell you, maybe it was metaphorically helping me figure out my life. But I am going back to that knot shortly. I will get it untangled.
Carts online (and in person!)
Okay, so I said I wasn't buying anything else for the summer, but I got a dress during the week and then two tees and a silk skirt at Penelope's in Wicker Park on Saturday morning.