Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. At the vegetarian taco shop, the handful of downstairs tables are taken, so I head upstairs for the first time. I’m pleasantly surprised to discover it’s a light, airy space with windows, a fireplace (that I suspect is just for show), and bookshelves that contain, among other things, a terrarium featuring exotic cacti (that remind me of the tiny floral department at the Hamden Bradlee’s when I was really young) and golden dinosaurs.

2. My Saturday mail contains a single item — a birthday (plus a month) card — which utterly makes my day.

3. After five straight nights of eating chili (after Rudi generously made twice as much as I’d asked for before leaving on his road trip last week, knowing how poorly I often feed myself when left to my own devices) for supper, it felt like such a treat to cook a veggie burger for myself.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Peach blossoms against the blue sky. The first tulips. Flowering trees

2. Clean sheets, somewhat overdue.

3. I feel better this evening and take myself up to the park to enjoy the last bit of warmth and sunshine before the impending cold snap. The dogs are running wild, and several stop to see if my knitting bag or tea cup contain anything they might like, before heading back to tennis balls and games of chase.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. A visit to the main branch of my library during my mid-week #brownbagdc Twitter book club nets me the opportunity to conduct my chatting in person with the three librarians (Jo, Myra, and Esti) who run it. Because the main branch (sadly, the closest branch to my office) is closing on Saturday for three years in order to do extensive renovations, our chat hosts were offering walk-ins as many free books off their Advance Reader cart as we wanted. I restrain myself to two, and we discuss the possibility of an in-person book club meeting later in the year to do a book swap.

2. The unseasonably warm temperatures has had me wearing my early fall clothing (essentially, also my summer clothing, but with short socks and closed-toe shoes, rather than flip flops, and sometimes a shawl if I anticipate getting home after dark) and spending lots of time outside.

3. The most delicious King Cake I’ve ever had (raspberry cream cheese) and sparkly Mardi Gras-themed nails to match.

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

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. As Dad and I are chatting on the phone Sunday evening, a dozen or so women walk by me outside singing “This Land Is Your Land.”

2. An adorable 6-month-old tawny terrier named General Grant is at the park with his owner. No one is immune to his charms.

3. Volleyball resumed this week after an unintentional three-month respite. My team was expected to provide someone to ref the match following ours (a normal part of our league), and since Rudi was out on a bike ride, I volunteered to be that person. Except that those teams ended up being a player short of being allowed to play, so I was asked to keep score while playing. (The team I was on did win, but I swear it was legit.) It ended up being a fast-paced, good-natured game of four-on-four.

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

I’m heading over to help our friends pack before their movers arrive tomorrow, so I thought I’d post this before leaving:

Three beautiful things from my birthday week:

1. My parents drove 8 hours down to visit me, spent 3 hours here, and then drove 8 hours home, just to bring me birthday presents and a chair. Hard not to feel loved when people will spend 16 hours in a car just to spend a little time with you.

2. My coworker had a dinner party on Valentine’s Day and made such a sumptuous feast that her guests had no appetite for the seasonal candy she’d put out. I arrived at work yesterday to find a bag filled with probably a pound of M&M’s and Reese’s hearts waiting on my desk.

3. I spied crocuses on Saturday, a year to the day I saw the first bulbs of the season last year.

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

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. A new (lavender) bra on our first day out together.

2. I hand my travel mug to the Starbucks employee to fill with cocoa and, because I’ve ordered a smaller size than fits in my cup, they hand it back topped with several inches of whipped cream and chocolate syrup.

3. In a week of disappointing decisions, a Washington judge and the West Coast appellate judges who ruled against the Muslim ban.

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