Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Katie has a housewarming party, and about a quarter of the volleyball team is able to make it, including Sergio and his family, which means I get to play with a toddler and hold a three-month-old.

2. The first strawberries and salads made only with lettuce from our garden were consumed this week. Plus, there is at least one pod growing amidst the waist-high peas greens, there are half a dozen green chilis, the cucumber is covered with flowers, and the potato greens are knee-high.

3. Rudi’s birthday was Friday, and we celebrated with several of his friends outside at a brewery — just AFTER a torrential rainstorm.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share books featuring traveling. All of these earned five stars from me:

1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows: Pen pals are so fascinated by each other that one travels from London to the Isle of Guernsey to meet the rest.
2. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin: A young girl runs away to find the Man in the Moon
3. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds: Is the boy in this novel in verse in the same place as the one who got on the elevator just seven flights up? I’d like to think not.
4. 49 Days by Agnes Lee: In this sparse graphic novel, over seven weeks, a young woman must journey across unfamiliar terrain to come to terms with being dead — while her family must contend with still being in the land of the living.
5. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis: Four siblings evacuated from London travel through a coat closet into a magical, winter-stuck land.
6. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle: A girl, a boy from her class, her young brother, and three otherworldly beings travel to space.
7. Exit West by Hamid Mohsin: Two refugees leave behind their Middle Eastern home and step through a door to what they hope will be a new life.
8. Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell: A girl everyone believes to be orphaned runs away to Paris in search of the mother she remembers from her babyhood.
9. The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart: A nomadic father flees a particular moment in time with his child, but, unlike him, she wants to find her way back home to Washington state.
10. Shark Heart by Emily Habeck: In this heartbreaking love story, a woman must drive across the country to let her husband, who has turned into a shark, go into the wild.

Do you have favorite books about a journey?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Despite the cancellation of our kids’ program, the adult leagues go on despite the threat of thunderstorms. Neither rain nor lightning materialize in our vicinity, and we not only get our game in, but also patio time at the local watering hole for drinks and dinner afterwards.

2. A single restroom has been in the works at the park where we play on Saturdays. My pal sent a photo earlier this week without any construction fencing around it, so we are hopeful this will mean it’s open this weekend. (The women, particularly, will be grateful, as the guys just disappear into the wooded verge.)

3. Plenty of rain has fallen this week, which means I haven’t had to trudge water down to my thirsty garden plot. Since the pool adjacent to our community garden opens next weekend, I’m hopeful the water has been turned on, and I won’t have to lug more from home until the fall.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Despite a worrying forecast, Saturday turned out to be a lovely day and we stayed out playing until suppertime, when a bunch of us trooped down the hill to the local Tex-Mex joint and then on to a bar for a nightcap. Apparently some of the others kept going until 2 a.m., but I was maxed out on crowds and retired home at 10.

2. Rudi and I went to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival on Sunday for the first time in several years and got to see herding demonstrations, sheep, and lots and lots of yarn. I’ll save the haul (Rudi is an enabler) to show you another day, but here are a pair of sheep who were happy to say hi.

3. Susan and I had lunch this afternoon. The coffeehouse at the cathedral had a tent up, which meant we could sit outside on a lovely afternoon without fear of her getting burned.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl is local authors. Here are ten authors who live or lived in Washington, D.C. (Please note, if you have Congressional representation, you aren’t from D.C., no matter what people from Maryland and Virginia may tell you.)

1. Elizabeth Acevedo (I met her on my birthday in … 2019, maybe, when I took myself to Mahogany Books in Anacostia and asked the bookseller for a recommendation for a local writer. I was still in the building when she stopped by, and the bookseller came to find me so she could sign my copy of her poetry collection, Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths.)
2. Jason Reynolds (Jason often comes out to support other authors’ talks, so you periodically see him out and about at a local bookstore.)
3. E. Ethelbert Miller
4. Leslye Penelope (She went to Howard, so we’re counting her.)
5. Tiffany D. Jackson (Ditto)
6. Jessica Spotswood (a D.C. Public Library employee, who helped run our book club chat for a while!)
7. Stephen Spotswood
8. Kyle Dargan
9. George Pelecanos (Confession: I haven’t read any of his books. But he’s probably one of D.C.’s most famous writers.)
10. Nicole Chung (I haven’t read any of Nicole’s books yet, but I will.)

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I went to the National Arboretum for the first time last week. The azaleas were in late peak bloom, and we got a nice hike in to see a good portion of them. (Azaleas and rhododendron remind me of my grandfather.) We also got to see the old columns from the Capitol, which stood back when Lincoln was sworn in as president.

2. The Mets were in town for one of their two visits this season. In the final game of the four-game series, they scored 19 runs to blow the Nationals out of the water. It was ridiculous, but, also, a win is a win, particularly if I get to see it in person.

3. My Saturday league resumed for the season last weekend. I loved getting to see folks I hadn’t caught up with since November and it was good to go out for supper, even if they’ve gotten rid of the sandwich I used to love.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?