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?

Three beautiful things from the week past:

1. New pj pants. They’re spring green with a tea cup print.

2. A new lamp for next to Rudi’s chair (where I’m currently stationed while Rudi is recuperating on the couch). It makes the living room so much brighter.

3. Daylight savings time means it is lighter later. Several times I leave work this week before the sun sets, and several times this week there have been gorgeous sunsets.

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

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. A blanket of snow lies on the slope alongside the escalator down to the metro station, softening the terraced surface into pleats.

2. Rudi and I saw both Frozen and The Wind Rises last weekend in our effort to fairly judge among the animated Oscar nominees. Both films were enjoyable, if very different, and the latter was especially moving as it is a biopic period piece set in Japan in the early 20th century. (If you aren’t a fan of reading your films, there is a dubbed version made with a decidedly Anglo cast, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, among others. I can’t speak to it, but it’s filled with big names, so I assume it would be well-acted, if very white.)

3.

Outside, I see the first croci of the season and snowdrops in the snow. On the indoor plants, I have new buds on my blooming orchid and fresh blossoms on my African violet.

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Both my BFF and my work colleague’s brand new grandson make it through their planned surgeries with flying colors.

2. A box arrives from my college roommate smelling of sandalwood and filled with summery fabrics.

3. A missed opportunity to attend a pie festival turns into an afternoon spent sitting outside on a cafe’s warm wooden bench in the sun, drinking homemade passion fruit soda out of a mason jar while knitting and listening to music on my iPod.

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