Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Both my COVID isolation period and the subsequent masking period have come to a close. It felt wonderful to walk to the grocery store tonight naked-faced until I went inside.

2. We had a thunderstorm last night, the sort where the sky cracks right overhead. This is our first of the year, and while I know it can be a violent storm, particularly for those living unhoused, I had the privilege of witnessing it from the safety of my couch and did not have to dread it. (Corey, on the other hand, definitely was not thrilled.)

3. As I was walking home Sunday evening, I noticed a large bird suddenly flapping against the wind just above traffic ahead of me. At first I thought it was an eagle or an owl, but then it came in for a landing on the ground, making me almost certain that it was a wild turkey. The jogger in front of me paused and turned around, incredulous, to confirm that he was seeing what he thought he was, as the hen looked back at us and then crossed the road. Because it was heading toward one of the busiest roads in our area, I followed, hoping to corral it back to safer climes. It paused by a decommissioned bus stop, as if hoping an alternative mode home might arrive. It walked on a bit more, before darting across the street, in front of what I can only assume was a very surprised driver, and up into the neighborhood that would likely put it back in the direction of its nest. While I live in what many would still consider to be a downtown area, I’m also two blocks away from the woods, and it’s easy to forget that until the wildlife materialize to remind you.

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

Look! It’s progress on knitting! This is the second of a stripey rainbow pair I began last year and put aside after the first one was complete. One of my coworkers recently learned to knit and another crochets and so we’ve started a knitting circle, with last week being our first meeting. I felt confident that I should have something to work on — and also, I’ve lost my knitting mojo a bit and stripey socks are potato chip knitting.

On the reading front, I’ve been dipping in an out of print books in search of one that holds my attention for more than a chapter. Light from Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki may be that book. I’m up to page 30 in this sci fi novel about a woman who bartered her soul to the devil (I assume for violin prowess, but that part has yet to be revealed) and now is in the final year of needing to find seven other people to send him. There’s also a transgender runaway who may be a violin prodigy and a starship captain and mother of four who’s in hiding on earth with her family and passing their time making doughnuts. That’s a lot to squeeze into 30 pages.

In the ears, I’m adoring Freya Marke’s A Marvellous Light, about a man who gets a government job only to find out it’s as a liaison to the magical world. On top of that, the guy he’s replacing has gone missing, and he’s been cursed in an effort to get him to reveal a magical secret, and he’s maybe falling in love with the magician who’s his counterpart.

How about you? What are you reading or crafting? Head to As Kat Knits to see the roundup.

Sunday was mostly overcast, but the clouds thinned overhead toward dusk and cleared at the horizon, leaving us with a gorgeous end to the day.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share books with adjectives in the title. Here are ten such books that I either currently have borrowed from the library or am on the holds list for:

1. An Impossible Impostor by Deanna Raybourn
2. The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan
3. Broken Horses by Brandi Carlisle
4. Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim
5. Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
6. Vampires, Hearts, and Other Dead Things by Margie Fuston
7. Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny
8. A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
9. Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston
10. A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey

How about you? What are some of the adjectives in your library stack?

I spent a couple hours down at the garden this afternoon, adding some more peas and spring greens to my plot and clearing away some more of the mulch from the cold season.

While my peas have yet to emerge, I do have some other plants already growing:

Mini daffodils

Bronze fennel

Kale and sorrel

Pansies

Mint

Lemon balm

And, most exciting of all, because I planted them two weeks ago:

Rainbow chard!

Are things starting to grow in your gardens or are you still in the dreaming phase?

Three beautiful things from this past week:

1. If Rudi had to catch COVID, at least it over was a non-race weekend, when he was coaching only 90 minutes away and sleeping at home. So far, we’ve not heard that he’s passed the germs on to anyone else.

2. If I had to catch COVID, at least it was just after doing a supply run and nearly a week out from seeing anyone I would have spent any quantity of time with.

3. If either of us had to catch COVID, at least it was after being vaccinated and boosted and with health insurance and (for me) paid sick days. Our symptoms have been mild and I’ve been able to simply be exhausted and grumpy about being housebound on a beautiful spring week, rather than gasping for breath and fearing for my life. We test again tomorrow and hopefully that will indicate we can leave the house, albeit masked the whole time for another five days.

What’s been beautiful in your world lately?