Three beautiful things from the first week of fall:

1. Fallen ripe ginkgo fruit smell like dog poop, but remind me of college, where the trees lined the walkway to the administrative building. I work hard not to step on the ones splattered on the road and sidewalk nearby, but the scent takes me home.

2. An otherwise average young guy on the metro has a mustache that belongs on a strongman or a Tour de France cyclist from 1905. I’m certain that it makes him absolutely happy to sport such a silly facial adornment.

3. Our final ballgame of the year goes into a rain delay that looks to last the rest of the evening. Rudi and I, however, have nowhere else to be until that call is made, and the team puts other games from drier climes on the jumbo screen in the outfield to pass the time. In between those innings, the Nationals announcer plays pop songs that relate to rain or waiting.

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

Three beautiful things from the final week of summer:

1. The fall season of tv started this week. The highlight of the new shows I’ve seen so far is Speechless, the Minnie Driver-fronted comedy about a family who regularly moves in order to find the best school and situation for their eldest child, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair and a speech board. Pilots aren’t usually the best way to judge a new series (they’re trying to introduce all their characters and do the elevator speech in 22 or 46 minutes), so I’ll probably stick with Pitch, Designated Survivor, and The Good Place for a few more episodes despite their flaws.

2. There have been some spectacular sunsets this week.

3. At the Tuesday farmers market, I buy my first apples of the season. So crisp!

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I leave work with just enough time to get to the stop to catch the bus home only to find that the road has been blocked off and they’re not letting anyone through. While the bus was also going to be on the wrong side of this roadblock, usually this would be cause for grumbling about a delay in getting home. But there are people in from out of town who are really excited about the fact that the Presidential motorcade is about to pass by, and their enthusiasm is catching. You get used to it when you live here, and you tend to focus only on the inconvenience to your daily life, but it is actually kind of cool that the leader of the nation is driving right past you.

2. Rudi’s bicycle club gets tickets to the baseball game and they invite me along. Since it’s a Mets game and I’m in between volleyball seasons, I say yes. I’m glad I do when I discover that the seats are in left field, about six rows above the visiting team’s dugout. I sit and chat with Rudi’s friends for a while, but late in the game I move forward to follow what’s going on with the relief staff. That’s Fernando Salas, above, who came in to get the first two outs in the tenth. And this is Jerry Blevins heading into the game to face down his former teammate and Nationals powerhouse Daniel Murphy for the third and final out, saving the day for the Mets fans.

3. Rudi made a batch of pesto tonight with fresh basil from the farmers market. We’ll freeze most of it for the winter, but tonight we had very tasty pasta for supper.

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

Three beautiful things from the first week of September:

1. I bought a seersucker dress back in the spring before the weather was warm enough to justify it, put it in my closet, and then never thought about it again until I was contemplating what to wear during our latest heat wave. Since I’ve been feeling mopey about wanting to buy new clothes lately (why is it that several decades out of school, I still think I need a new outfit come September?), cutting the price tag off the dress felt especially good. (Plus, a coworker complimented me on it!)

2. I swallowed back the fear of rejection and asked someone I only know slightly to a movie based on a book we’ve both read. It doesn’t come out for another six weeks, but she said yes!

3. Last night after their ride, Rudi’s bike group went out for pizza on their club’s dime. When they were divvying up leftovers, they asked if he’d like to take a few slices home to me. They made for a delicious supper.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Friends have just moved back to the East Coast from California, and we got to celebrate by having supper with them.

2. We played a hard-fought and ridiculously close quarterfinal match in volleyball, but ultimately lost. This meant I got to celebrate the end of volleyball season with a half hour at the pool before it closed.

3. Rudi got the all-clear to return to cycling post-surgery.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Deciding to play yarn chicken with the bind-off on my shawl, and having more than enough.

2. Friends and some of the kids Rudi coaches bring him gifts of food to help him recuperate from surgery, so we have quiche, cake, and cookies to eat.

3. My volleyball team lost all seven regular-season games, but everyone advances into the playoffs. We surprised our opponents — and ourselves — by winning two matches in a row. We get to play again next week in the quarterfinals.

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