Nine years ago this week, inspired by Clare’s blog, I started recording beautiful things in my life. Mostly it’s been a weekly — on Thursdays (because of the alliteration) — occurrence, but there have been some additional posts in there as life has mandated. As my most regular feature, this marks my 496th post on the topic.

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. A new pair of contacts after wearing the previous pair too long, dozing off in them too many times, and, finally, getting sunscreen on them.

2. My new volleyball team does not have the on-court skill of my previous one, but the camaraderie is strong, and four of us enjoyed a post-game drink this week.

3. Tuesday evening, as sunset neared, the day’s final rain poured down like a snow shower. Off to the east, a double-rainbow blossomed.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rolling up my jeans on a warm afternoon.

2. A bouquet of violets plucked from my garden and put into a green vase atop the fridge.

3. Making it to the metro just as the rain hits.

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

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Long denied the sea air, on my one free evening in Boston I take the T to the ocean in Revere. I walk along the beach, watching the beam from an offshore lighthouse cut through the fog, and marveling at the size of the clam shells washed up from recent Nor’easters. I had done some research to find a fish/sandwich shop for dinner, but it turned out to be a takeout-only joint. Disregarding the 40-degree temperatures and the storm rolling in, I take my dinner outside and have a tasty, if quick, fish feast in a beach-side pavilion before heading back to the city and my warm hotel bed.

2. After six years and many requests, Nationals Park finally added a veggie hot dog to the stadium’s menu.

3. My friend BW has a monthlong internship in D.C. this summer and texted me to inquire about an apartment she was considering. Turns out it’s less than a mile from the Burrow, which is the closest we’ll have lived together since we graduated from college 18 years ago. I’m beyond excited.

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

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Sam and Alexis invite me out to a vegetarian restaurant, where I have fiddleheads, and to an ice cream parlor, where my dessert is a nut-filled, rosewater-flavored scoop. Karen takes the train up to Boston and we end up at an overpriced Italian spot for supper and, later, a Chinese bakery for cups of tea. Regardless of what I’m eating, it is best done with people I’ve known and loved for so long. It cannot be said enough how much I miss them and how wonderful it is to have them sitting an arm-length away.

2. Opening Day eventually holds a loss for the Mets, but because their opponents were the Nationals, I was able to pull in a staticky radio broadcast for the game at my desk.

3. I head to Boston’s North End in pursuit of a lunch place Sam recommends. Instead, I end up in Modern Pastry Shop, whose overwhelming smell of sugar and almond paste reminds me of Libby’s in New Haven. I buy a cannoli, which they fill on the spot with ricotta and top with powdered sugar. It is the best Italian pastry I have ever had, whether enjoyed outside with sugar blowing all over me or at one of the shop’s handful of tables with my oldest friend.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi has been okayed to bear full weight on his bad leg. This has given him more freedom of motion and more confidence in trying new maneuvers. This evening he cleaned the cat boxes before I got home.

2. The cables on my current sock are the most complex I’ve ever done, but form a really cool Celtic knot. Not only that, but I, realizing I’d miscrossed several cables a couple rows later, was able to drop the relevant stitches down, reorient the stitches to the right side of the fabric, and fix the wonky section without having to rip back to the mistake. I feel like a pro.

3. I haven’t painted my nails since the Christmas polish wore off. I’ve been meaning to for ages, but couldn’t find the time to sit with hands still long enough for even my quick-dry polish to set. Saturday morning, while Rudi was out, I followed up a few household chores with a painting session. I forget that the extra time does really make that much of a difference in my mood and that other people like to see the colors I’ve picked, too. (This time, they’re electric blue, salmon, lime green, mauve, and terracotta.)

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

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. The last snowstorm of the winter arrives earlier and steadier than expected and lasts longer than expected, giving us one more snow day for the year after dropping eight inches on the neighborhood. (I love how you can tell that the government is shut down by the lack of morning traffic sounds.) I sleep in, shovel, drop Rudi off at a doctor’s appointment, shop while he’s there, and spend the rest of the night frantically knitting on my socks for the first round of Sock Madness.

2. Sam and Alexis are down visiting other Conn friends and have some free time, so we head to Annapolis on Saturday for lunch on the wharf and ice cream in the sun and lounging in the grass at the State House and veggie sushi with Grover.

And then on Sunday, Susan and Phillip invite us over for dinner with them and the kids. Holden has been learning about pizza in school and is a pro at making them while wearing his personalized apron. Caroline narrates the various ingredients being added.

3. Every year at this time, Trader Joe’s sells daffodils for very little, and I get to have a shock of yellow atop my fridge:

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