Three beautiful things from my 50th-birthday week:

1. The weather in D.C. is lovely for February, so my pal Mario invites a small group out to play volleyball all afternoon.

2. Spring flowers are in full bloom in London, where I’m spending this week.

3. Friends of a friend of Rudi’s recommend we visit the Marylebone location of Daunt Books. I’d like to move in.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The weather in D.C. has been very temperate, which means between Sunday and today, the neighborhood daffodils went from dressing gowns:

to ballgowns:

2. Chris and Julie treated me to supper as an early birthday celebration, since they’re out of town this week and I’m away next.

3. Susan and I had lunch this afternoon, and then because I was feeling all sorts of over-achieving, I returned some books to the library and wandered over to Georgetown in search of sun and shoes. (I found one, but not t’other.)

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I had friends over for a game night. Exploding Kittens was lots of fun, as was the company.

2. As I was biking to my volleyball game Saturday morning, I realized the air was scented with pine. Turns out, I was following the truck that was collecting Christmas trees for composting.

3. The time between volunteering and volleyball was too short to go home, so I stopped at a cafe for a snack. Half a cream puff and a cup of Earl Grey later, I was refreshed and ready to play.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I started to get anxious about playing in a competitive league for the first time in ages. What if I suck? Will this group of pickup pals regret having invited me to join them? But I reminded myself that they did ask me, even knowing my weaknesses (because you can’t play with someone multiple times a week and not know their flaws on the court), and that my strengths include that I will show up consistently and play my hardest every time, and those are big plusses. We lost our first match and I made a few bad plays. But I also made some good ones, just like everyone else.

2. I decided, bravely and rather spur of the moment, to invite an acquaintance out for supper the other night. She accepted, and we had a nice time and are planning to do it again.

3. I walked back under sunny skies from the Cathedral last weekend, my longest stroll of the winter. It felt good to stretch my legs, even if I would have liked some of the sidewalks to have been better tended to after the snow from the day before. And it was fun to start an audiobook in a series I enjoy while I was on the move.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. We have booked a trip for my birthday next month.

2. It snowed several inches on Monday, and Rudi was around to shovel. (This was particularly beautiful because he will *not* be around for Friday’s snow.)

3. With snow still gently falling, a day off for many people already, and nearly two years since we’d had any accumulation, folks had a lot of fun playing outdoors. I watched kids (and parents) sledding down on on the “beach.” At at the Circle, one very excited Bernese alternated between flopping and rolling around on the ground and tugging on its leash to pull its adult owner and its child on a sled around faster and faster.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. It’s been ages (like since spring), but BW and I finally got a chance to have a nice, long call to catch up.

2. Our volleyball team beat the #2 team on a solid hit by one of my teammates who is sometimes reluctant to spike the ball to advance to the league finals. We lost that game, but the four of us who went out for dinner afterwards agreed that it was a good night regardless.

3. My new passport has arrived in record time. (Literally — it took a week.)

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