Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi and I make the most of our mutual unemployment today, spending the afternoon at the zoo, checking out a new ice cream shop, and sitting on the patio at a bar I’m fond of.

2. After soliciting advice from many of my friends and outlining a detailed plan with one with expertise, I attempt something new and foreign and terrifying to me — and utterly fail. There are tears in public (although later, not in the moment of failure itself), but words of comfort and congratulations drift in from across the country for having been brave enough to try.

3. I made a new friend back in the spring and we have spent lots of time out together over the past few months. This weekend, she and her husband (and their dog, Molly) invited us over for supper and we spent hours chatting about their upcoming vacation, early computing languages (that was mostly Rudi and her husband), and how job hunting has changed since we were all young.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Wednesday evening brought more rain and two more rainbows. I didn’t have great angles, so this fragment of the second one, seen from near my garden, is my best shot.

2. We spend the late afternoon and early evening at the pool to combat the last day of the heat wave before the upcoming respite of cooler weather. Our outdoor pools close on Labor Day, so our time there grows more precious by the day.

3. Sarah, Anne, and I have been mulling a get-together for months and we finally booked a silver sliver of time not already claimed by work or vacation or other activities. We spend hours at the restaurant talking about life and travels and books and agree at the end that we should not let the period between gatherings grow so long next time.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. There’s nothing like returning to a garden that’s at peak production. My haul on Wednesday included peppers, at least five varieties of tomatoes, and basil.

2. One of the things I really wanted to do while in Connecticut was to get to a sporting goods store to see if I could find a pair of volleyball sneakers. I could tell the difference for my knees just jumping around Dick’s shoe department, so I am excited for next month when I resume playing indoors and can use them. Since I’ll be playing twice a week again, it will be good to minimize the beating my knees take.

3. A shower immediately after coming in from an hour playing volleyball outside in the August heat.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I bought a couple new dresses and got a haircut.

2. I tried blueberry and white chocolate ice cream. It was delicious!

3. There is a fig tree near the garden, so Rudi and I went and picked some of the ripe ones. Our fingers were very sticky when we were done.

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

If it’s Thursday, it’s time to think back on three beautiful things from my past week:

1. After biking back from an early morning jaunt to Virginia, I stopped in Georgetown for a bit. Their Business Improvement District, as with many neighborhoods’, has worked hard to reclaim public spaces and make them inviting. Today I noticed they’d recently added a porch-style swing to the seating along the walk by the canal. I sat there with a cup of tea, rocking slowly, watching the dragonflies and damselflies flit amongst the cattails and the water slowly meander over grasses toward the Potomac. (They’re currently overhauling the canal, so have let it go wild during the process.)

2. We got to the movies on Tuesday to catch Yesterday, about a 20-something singer of little success who, after awakening following a freak worldwide blackout and a subsequent accident to find that no one else remembers who the Beatles (among other things) were, proceeds to record the songs as his own. Himesh Patel as Jack Malik does a great job with the material and with portraying the stresses of both fraudulently representing someone else’s work as your own (Why did you write a song about the USSR, which dissolved before you were born, for instance), and of the changes to your life when you suddenly hit it big after years of getting by. The music is a standout, and Rudi and I were not the only ones to find ourselves singing along in the theater over the closing credits.

3. A neighbor on the next block had a large, diseased tree cut down last Friday. Normally, I wouldn’t say this was a positive thing, but the fact is that there was a large warren of rats living underneath its roots and I’m glad not to have to hot-foot it past in the dark any more. (Like any city girl, I can cope with rats on their own just fine — they’re way more scared of you and just want to get away — but saw way too many cartoons as a kid to be comfortable with them ganging up.)

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The crape myrtle are particularly lovely this summer.

2. We went out for pizza on Tuesday, courtesy of a Christmas gift from my parents.

3. Our baseball game Monday evening got rained out and rescheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Rudi had to work, but Sarah and I got to enjoy the perks of unemployment and spent the afternoon cheering the Nationals to victory through a gloriously sunny day game.

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