Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Sourdough bread, made from my starter. Yes, it’s probably cheating a little bit to make it in the breadmaker, but at this point, whatever gets it turned into bread is a winner, in my mind. We ate warm slices as soon as the loaf was cool enough to cut and had it toasted for breakfast with butter and jam.

2. This week, in addition to accepting some paid part-time work with a local campaign he really believes in, Rudi has, with a friend, launched a nonprofit project, BikeMatch, that pairs local cyclists who are willing to donate bikes to people who need them during this crisis. In their first couple days, they’ve already heard from 50 people. I am super proud of him.

3. I painted my toenails. This weekend I’m going to do my fingernails.

How about you? What beautiful things have you been noticing in your world to help you deal with this?

This was rush hour on Rock Creek Parkway today.

you just need color.

As of today, D.C. has been told officially we must stay home. We can still go to the grocery store and out for exercise, but the parks have all been closed and there’s some confusion as to whether or not we can spend time at the garden.

Today it was cool and it started raining just after work wrapped up for the day. Because of course it did.

So, I reached for one of my recently modeled shawls to help cheer me up.

This is my Hairpin Turns shawl, aka Around the Bend by Nim Teasdale.

It’s knit with two skeins of Freia fine hand paints. They’re both in the Ombré Merino line — Vamp and Melon. I like the yarn and am glad I still have two balls for future projects.

I cast it on as my Tour de France Knitalong project in early July 2018 and finished it sometime in early 2019 … I think. It disappears off my blog in November 2018, at which point I still have 200 (decreasing) rows to knit.

It’s not perfect. There was a recommendation in Ravelry notes to purl a row to keep it from curling weirdly where you bind off half your stitches, but I should only have purled the bindoff side, rather than the other side, too, I think. But I think that’s mostly a critical knitter thing, rather than something the casual observer would pick up on. And because of the shape, it wears a little weirdly. This is sort of the best look I’ve found for it.

But it is squishy and I love the colors and it goes with so many things.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share the top ten signs you’re a book lover.

Here are some ways folks may know I love books:

1. There are very few surfaces in my apartment that do not contain books. This does not keep me from stopping at every bookshop and Little Free Library that I pass.
2. I belong to three library systems — in three states — and the Library of Congress.
3. My insurmountable TBR list predates Goodreads. It used to be written on brightly colored index cards in tiny writing. Periodically one still resurfaces. Occasionally, I’ve read one title of the 75+ contained on it.
4. I can — and do — read (print books) and walk. Mostly I put my finger in the book when crossing streets.
5. I have 60 audiobooks on my phone.
6. Every time I have moved, the first box that gets unpacked contains Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. (My college roommate said she knew immediately that we’d be friends.)
7. We own copies of Harry Potter titles in a variety of languages, including a couple we don’t read.
8. My Halloween costumes are often based on bookish characters.
9. Every year, I tamp down my crowd anxiety to brave thousands of people at the National Book Festival.
10. I literally have the tshirt. (And the tote bag. And the socks. And the Christmas pjs. And … )

How about you? Are there obvious signs that you’re a book lover, too?

We did not get around to baking bread, but I did make waffles for brunch and pass on some starter to a stranger.

We didn’t find strawberry plants for the garden, but we did find flour, milk, and greens for the kitchen.

We didn’t clean the living room, but we did defrost the freezer.

We didn’t have a living room dance party, but we did get out on our bikes.

I didn’t finish my book, but I did read a chapter. (I’m getting close to having to turn to Harry Potter…)

We didn’t talk to our friends, but I did talk to my brother, text with a couple friends who live close to the epicenter in New York, and make plans to say a socially distant farewell to friends who are moving back to Germany this week.

We didn’t get the sheets changed, but we did sleep in.

And that’ll have to be good enough for right now. After all, tomorrow is a new day and a clean slate and there are plenty of chances to do more then.

Rudi and I did some more tidying of the garden plot this month. I find if I do a section at a time I hate it less. I hate it even less if Rudi does it.

The big tufty grass-like things are bunching onion grass that we planted one of our first couple years in the garden. The greens at the bottom are sorrel, which we also planted ages ago and which just reseeds itself.

Our herbs, which are at the back of the plot, also mostly survived the winter.

This is the bronze fennel, which grew to a six-foot behemoth last year.

I’m still working on clearing this back section out, but there’s purple sage, oregano, and mint back, at the very least.

The strawberries and violets are doing well, but I’d like several more strawberry plants and haven’t yet found any.

I planted peas a month ago, and planted more last week, because a month gave me better insight into which peas had not come up. I plant half-rows of single types at the start of the season for precisely this reason, although I’m not always great about keeping track of which type is which. Some of my seeds dated back a decade, while others were new last year or this.

I also planted spring greens — chard, lettuces, spinach, kale, and some others. Again, I can tell you which things are in the garden, but maybe not which ones they are until they come up.

That second shot is from Friday, and the amount they’ve grown in a week is noticeable. They’re at the top of the previous shot.

Our bunny may be back, because I notice the seedlings I planted (kale and spinach) had been munched. Of course, I did also pull a happy slug off a spinach leaf, so it may not be vertebrates that are the culprit.

If you can plant something, even just in a pot, it feels especially good this year to see seeds coming to life. Peas and greens are hardy and can be outside well before the last risk of frost.