It’s been a beautiful week weather-wise, one to be savored slowly and out-of-doors in anticipation of wintry weather’s arrival. I have done some of that this week, as well as attending some author readings (sadly held indoors), so, frankly, it’s been a pretty great week for me.

Here are three of the beautiful things from it:

1. Biting into the first honeycrisp apple of the season.

2. Monday’s tragedy at the Navy Yard meant that the game we had tickets to attend understandably was postponed until Tuesday afternoon. I was the only one of the four of us who could get the time off, so I went on my own. I watched the game from a half-dozen vantage points, ate falafal and cotton candy (at different times; that combo does not appeal!), and pulled the radio broadcast of the game up on my iPod. It was a picture-perfect day for a game and the Nats kept it exciting before pulling out a win in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the ninth. I biked to a couple farmers markets and then over to have tea in the back patio of a Middle Eastern tea shop, where I took notes for writing a scene and read.

3. Being at the beach.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week in this last full week before fall’s arrival?

Three beautiful things from the week past:

1. I hand the Trader Joes clerk my shopping bag and put my library books down on the kiosk ledge to dig out my wallet and pay. “May I add the books to the bag for you?” he asks. Why, yes, you may.

2. Catching the final train of the night from a location that would be challenging to get home from otherwise.

3. I read through the board book section of the shop in search of a birthday present. I take three to Rudi for narrowing down, but he likes all of them, too. We buy them all, because there will always be another baby in need of a gift and Christmas is not that far away.

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

The weekly challenge of remembering three of the beautiful things I say to myself about, “That will make a good one for Thursday.”

It remains to be seen if tomorrow morning I don’t wake up thinking, “Oh, that was what I meant to include.” It happens about a third of the time.

Three of the beautiful things from my week past:

1. Rudi wakes just enough in the wee hours of the morning to wrap an arm around me after I stumble into bed.

2. I decided the flowers from Nick and Larry’s wedding are too nice to enjoy only at home and pluck two roses out of the arrangement to take to the office. Realizing one is turning brown and the other is drooping, I carefully pluck the outer petals off both flowers and cut the stems before putting them in a fresh vase of water. Several hours later, both are looking much happier.

3. Biking over to Canal Park, I miss the crosswalk signal to get down the Mall. I turn to bike across it sideways and discover a gorgeous sunset behind me.

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

I’m afraid that all I want to do is to go to sleep, so short and sweet is what we’ll get. Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Trying to get a midweek swim in meant I was biking over to the pool just as the skies open up. I arrived, pre-dampened, to find the pool open and uncrowded and the water warm compared to the air.

2. After several hours of early morning garden work, I want some food and to recline for a while. I find both at the Georgetown Waterfront Park, where I eat an ice cream sandwich made of blueberry ice cream and chocolate chip cookies and then doze for a couple hours on my blanket in the shade.

3. Everyone else has other plans on Friday and Rudi and I consider bailing on the Yards to do something closer to home. Finally, we decide just to go and are pleased when we arrive. We mostly have the pool area under the bridge to ourselves, we can hear the music clearly from across the park, and we feast on cheese, hummus, bread, tomatoes, figs, and blackberries.

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

There were a bunch of things to choose from today. These are just three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Our freezer came unlatched while we were out of town (I probably failed to make sure it was shut all the way when I threw a couple things in right before we left) and as things melted, they shifted, which meant a big mess when our friends John and Nicole stopped by to feed the cats. The container of homemade ice cream ended up on the floor, but because it was made of Pyrex, it didn’t break and leave glass shards all over the kitchen.

2. Finding a pair of teabags in the desk drawer when I thought I was out.

3. After a stressful day and strenuous yard work, floating in a nearly deserted hotel pool beneath a waxing gibbous moon.

How about you? What was beautiful in your world this week?

It’s been a long day and I want nothing more than to sleep, so I’ll make this fast.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. A black sports car drives past sporting a plush, hot pink mustache on its grill.

2. I decide that the night is too fine to head right home, so pedal behind the White House, rather than in front of it. I’m rewarded for my exercise with the sight of Marine One landing.

3. When a breakdown en route to the airport causes us to miss our flight, Delta’s counter employees in Baltimore and Detroit are ridiculously helpful in getting us onto the only planes that will get us to Salt Lake tonight.

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