Three beautiful things from the past week (it’s late and I’m tired and hungry, so I will attempt to make only one of these items about food):

1. When I go to the farmers market during the week, I like to pick up something sweet for tea. Today’s treat was Kouign amann, a French cake from the Breton region. It was dense and flaky simultaneously, rich with butter, and topped with caramelized sugar.

2. Saturday was our annual trip to pick apples with Sarah, John, and Nicole. We each came away with a decent-sized bag of apples to keep us happy for a couple months, and the day was comfortable and dry, which the forecast had threatened might not be the case.

3. Sunday afternoon, well before I was expecting to hear from him, Rudi rang my cell. After this winter, you’ll be unsurprised that my heart sank into my shoes at seeing his name come across my screen. While I don’t wish anyone else an injury (and particularly not gentle Chris), I was really relieved when it turned out not to be Rudi who’d crashed and that he was calling to say he’d be late because he was picking up his wounded compatriot at the hospital.

and 4. (I lied. But you’ll understand why in a second.) Salad topped with french fries. You’re welcome, and I’m sorry (not sorry).

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. A couple blocks away lives a painter who frequently works on his front patio. This week, I notice that the bush behind where his easel stands is flecked with sky blue and neon green speckles.

2. Just after passing a shop window filled with boring neutrals, I notice a woman crossing the street wearing a shimmering magenta headscarf.

3. Rudi and I headed to the DelMarVa peninsula for a weekend of camping, bike riding, and frolicking at the beach. We were also treated to three evenings of breathtaking sunsets, including this one, which shows the Assateague Light and a crescent moon, as seen from our campsite on Chincoteague (of the Misty books):

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

Three beautiful things from my week past:

1. A person carrying a Loony Toons umbrella gets off the escalator I’m getting on.

2. The jackhammering going on beneath my window at work ends for the afternoon.

3. The pitter patter of raindrops on the tree and against the railing and the air conditioner lull me to sleep.

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

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Tomatoes from our garden, eaten by themselves, on tacos, on caprese sandwiches, on salads, and on vBLTs:

2. Volleyball started up again this week and even if I wasn’t playing fantastically, I was still playing.

3. Corey was acting a little rambunctious on Saturday and I remembered that we had a couple of ribbon toys that we’d tucked away when it became clear he was incapable of not swallowing string-like objects if left unattended. I pulled out a wand that has a six-foot-long, polar fleece tail and soon had all three cats chasing and jumping in pursuit of it (after which, it got put away again, because Corey totally chewed it in half in the 15 seconds I wasn’t paying attention while we played).

And, as a bonus, here’s this week’s bouquet, bought at the farmers market by my office:

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

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Dinner with John and Nicole for the first time in a couple months.

2. An app I’ve been laboring over for a year at work is named by Apple new and noteworthy in its category.

3. Writing greetings means I get to break out my sticker collection, including, for the first time in 30 years, new scratch-and-sniff ones.

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

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Because of the heat wave, the city generously has kept the pool open an extra few days after the scheduled close of the season. I make it for one final swim and find myself floating on my back in the gloaming, staring up at the first star of the night.

2. The National Book Festival was Saturday and I got to spend nine hours listening to authors read their books and share stories and generally feel all bookish. It’s one of my favorite celebrations of the year.

3. I arrived home with the final section of a book to read and picked it back up as Rudi was heating me up some dinner. When he came over to hand me my bowl, he found me weeping with a handful of pages left in the book on my lap. He put the bowl down and wordlessly left me alone to finish the sad, sad ending to the novel.

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