PROLOGUE

This is not the grandest of outfits, in fact, I’ve had these linen pants for close to 10 years and they’re a little dingey. I love a wide-legged linen pant in the summer, they’re so breezy and cool. But I’ve hung onto these for so long even though they’re missing a button and are a little long and I just saw when ironing them this morning that they have a little hole on the inner thigh, boo-hoo.

I may look like a wind-whipped schlub, but boy was I comfortable!

I’ve never replaced them because I can’t find the same pants in my size and price range. These are from Jessica London which is the same company as Woman Within and Roaman’s and Ellos. They do still carry a linen rayon blend trouser, which is what these are, but they no longer make them in a zipper fly. These are a zipper fly button elastic waist with drawstring. Now they’re made with just an elastic waist. And for me, because my hips/butt/stomach is the largest part of my body, that elastic opening has to be really really large to get over all that mess and up to my waist. And then the stomach area is poochy and there’s too much fabric going on, whereas if there had been a zipper opening it wouldn’t need to be so much fabric to get over all that, does that make sense?
So I haven’t let these go even though they’re not nice enough anymore to wear to work but I will wear them on weekend garden outings or to the beachy cocktail place on summer evenings. Because I love them. So I was saddened to see the hole inside the thigh this morning when I was ironing them. But I’m no quitter and I wore them anyway!  It’s not in an obvious spot and it’s not that large yet and hopefully it won’t rip more today. But because they are so beloved I’m actually going to try and fix them, or at least make them usable.
I don’t think I can actually fix the hole, the fabric there is too thin and worn away to sew, the stitches would just tear through the fabric. But I think I could do iron-on patches; one on the inside and one on the outside and that should be OK. I might even try my hand at sewing on a button!
I’m writing this Saturday morning waiting for my friend to meet me to head out east on the Island.  We’re starting at a private garden in Cutchogue belonging to garden designer Connie Cross, whose company Environmentals was really the first, back in the day, to offer interesting containerized perennials. If that doesn’t sound like anything, it used to be a real challenge finding perennials in garden centers beyond hostas, day-lilies and black-eyed susans.

Oh, here she comes now.

The day

This whole day started out on the wrong foot. I’d planned to be up and out by 8:30am to get to the garden right as it opened at 10. I am usually the first one in by a good 15 minutes and I like it that way. I like having the whole place to myself with no one blocking my views for pictures and without having to wait to go where I want to go.

But the night before I realized that Saturday was the first of June, and while I had been at the bank that very morning to make a deposit for work, had I gotten cash out for my rent?? NO. Guh. The ATM has a daily  limit of $900 (and if you take out the limit on Friday, you can’t take more til Monday) so I had two bad options: either tell my landlady I couldn’t give her the rest of the rent til Monday (ugh), or go to the branch of my bank that opens on Saturday at 10am. I gave up the dream of being the first (or possibly hundredth!) one into the garden, and opted to pay my rent on time. #adultingsucks

I met up with my friend after that and we headed out east. Amazingly there was no traffic and we made very good time and got to the garden address around noon…pulled into the long driveway…only to find a rope across the drive with a sign saying NO TOUR TODAY.

This little beach stone is SO CLOSE to being a heart. It just needs another thousand years on the shore.

No. Nope. That can’t be right. I was JUST on the website in the morning getting the directions and there was no mention of cancellation. Another car pulled in after us and they confirmed that they had also looked on the website that morning and no indication was given of a cancellation, and yet. When they drove away I pulled up the page on my phone and lo and behold…NO TOUR TODAY. Rescheduled for July 6. Sigh. Talk about waiting til the last minute!

So. I did what I always do when I’m in an unfamiliar area. I looked for the water. And we stopped anywhere we saw a photo opp. We had lunch on a charming street, had donuts, randomly ended up at one of her relatives’ summer homes and found a summer place she’d been thinking of buying for herself (also a nope), and talked and laughed. It hadn’t been the plan but we had a nice day. It was a nice day.

EPILOGUE

Remember the beloved khaki linen pants with the little hole I was going to fix? And how I was going to proudly show you my repair job…and the new button I planned to sew on?

On our second to last stop, as I slid back into the car, I heard the sound no one wants to hear: the sound of pants ripping. A LOT. Upon inspection, once I got home, I saw they had torn all the way across the back, right under the butt, from side seam to side seam. To quote a co-worker…there’s no hope for them.

So…RIP Favorite Linen Pants. I loved you long time.

What I Wore

Thanks to Linda for taking my picture!

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