I’m tired and still need to wash the dishes before I can go to sleep, so let’s make this a quick post, shall we?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The park near our house shows a movie every month during the summer. Tonight was lovely, with starry skies, dry ground, low humidity, and pleasant temperatures. As a bonus, I actually liked the film version of We Bought a Zoo better than the book, despite the drastic changes they made to the story.

2. My post-dentist treat is often macarons. This week, the featured flavor, strawberry-basil, is unexpected and blows me away.

3. Reading Rainbow Rowell’s new novel, Landline, the week it came out. She is hilarious in person and on Twitter (her Tweets regularly get read aloud to Rudi), and it came through in this book about a comedy writer in crisis.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The biggest, brightest rainbow I have ever had the joy of seeing appeared Tuesday evening amidst a drenching rainstorm and a dinner party.

2. Following a rainy Thursday afternoon, the 4th of July 3-day weekend dawned bright and pleasant — and stayed that way through Sunday night. It allowed for reading outside and dining outside and watching fireworks on the Mall and checking out the Folklife Festival and going to the pool and hanging out with friends and generally having the nicest July weekend in our history of living in D.C.

3. We eat corn on the cob three times during the first week of the season. Delicious!

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

For goodness’ sake. Two weeks in a row I’m late with this. Yesterday I just forgot it wasn’t already Friday…

Anyway, here are three beautiful things from the past week:

1. I won a contest on Twitter from Books on the Metro (who generously leaves reading material on D.C.’s mass transit for its users), which netted me a copy of Robert Galbraith’s brand-new (and slightly grisly) Cormoran Strike novel, The Silkworm. It arrived from my favorite local bookseller at the end of last week, wrapped in cheerful paper, and I have been parceling it out over a few days’ time to savor it (but it will be done today).

2. Outside the coffeehouse, a bench hugs the building. I notice it seems dry as I enter, so I take my tea outside to enjoy the rain and my book.

3. I harvest the first tomato from our garden: it’s a single cherry tomato, that Rudi and I split in a tiny, delicious morsel.

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

I have been hit hard by sinus-related woes this week, which meant that at the time I’m normally writing for you, I was curled up in bed asleep. But I woke up this morning remembering I’d forgotten (or something like that), so this morning we get a slightly belated three beautiful things from the past week:

1. We spent the weekend up in Connecticut. By taking off Friday, we got an early jump and were in New Haven in time for a late pizza lunch and Italian ices. We spent Saturday afternoon wandering around Northampton, where I bought socks and yarn and stickers. Sunday I spent some time in the hammock reading. And otherwise, I got to hang out with my parents and grandmother — picking peas in the garden, making scones, and doing crossword puzzles — which is just what I wanted to do most.

2. We also got an early start on the drive home, which meant that as we crossed into New Jersey, I thought of ice cream:

3. Marcus texted Rudi over the weekend to say he was coming to town for work and did we want to have dinner on Tuesday. Of course! When we walked up to the restaurant, he greeted us with hugs and said he hoped we didn’t mind, but he’d brought a couple guests along with him. And inside were my friend Amani (his wife) and her brother, Askari! It was a wonderful surprise!

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

It’s Thursday, so it’s time to reflect on three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Twice this week, I’ve brought slugs home in the strawberries from the garden. I don’t find the damage they do charming in the least (and we combat them in the garden with beer), but, in this case, their size works in their favor. Those who live amidst my strawberries are tiny silvery things, no longer than my pinkie fingernail and maybe twice as wide as a strawberry stem, with delicate antennae. Carefully, I lift them onto my finger and give them a ride outside to the ivy.

2. Returning home from an afternoon excursion to find a drying rack full of clean laundry.

3. After a bike ride on a hazy, hot, and humid night, changing into drier togs.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Saturday morning we were awakened by a huge racket outside our window well, where angry birds were making a ruckus about Corey sitting in his usual spot in the window. I’d noticed a nest above our sidewalk weeks earlier (it was well hidden, but they’d picked up some blue-and-white striped nylon string to include and it announced the location if you looked up at the right spot) and assumed that was what the hullabaloo was related to. That morning I could tell there were nestlings, but not how many, and I couldn’t be certain of their species, since I’d seen a couple different birds on the property.

Over the weekend, I became more sure. There were three babies and they were robins, since I often happened by as a parent was bringing a snack.

By Monday morning, the nest was vacant, and this feathery fellow was waiting his or her turn at seeing the world:

2. The office roofdeck has been unlocked, but without furniture for months — far later now than usual into the season. This week new chairs suddenly populate the space.

3. I’m gathering mulberries when I begin to hear thunder in the distance and decide I should start for home. It’s only half a mile or so, but I’m still several blocks from home when the percussion of large raindrops taps a more regular beat on my plastic container. But before the storm really begins to flex its muscles, I’m down the stairs, through the door, and into dry clothing.

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