Another belated three beautiful things post because we took yesterday to spend at the beach and got home late and tired.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. A day spent at the beach includes water in the 70s, air in the 80s, fish sandwiches, ice cream cones, reading, napping, diminishing crowds as the day went on, and a bonfire with free marshmallows to roast.

2. My taped-up wrist feels well enough to play volleyball on the sand courts by the Lincoln Memorial for the first time ever.

3. The community pool, which normally closes at 6 on weekends, stays open until 8 due to a heat wave. It is ten degrees cooler there than anywhere else in the vicinity, so even after we were done swimming, we just hang out on lounge chairs, enjoying some respite.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Sunflowers filling a field.

2. A bike messenger pedals past with a bunch of balloons tied to his delivery trailer.

3. Sitting out an afternoon rain shower under a large patio umbrella at a cafe.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I crashed my bicycle over the weekend (entirely my own fault), but was surprisingly lucky in terms of the outcome. It was a cool, damp evening, so I was wearing galoshes, bike gloves, and long sleeves, which cut down on the amount of skin I left on the pavement and increased my slidability. I was wearing my helmet with the sun visor, which bounced off the road instead of my nose or teeth. My right wrist is sprained, but not broken; my aches mostly faded before I had to go back to work Monday; and my scrapes, cuts, and some livid bruises (many of which are in places only Rudi and people at the pool should see from where I hit the brake levers when I tipped over the handlebars) are healing. People in the cars stopped on either side of me shouted immediate offers of assistance from their windows and pedestrians en route to the fireworks proffered water and additional ministrations, as Rudi helped me get off the roadway and onto the sidewalk.

2. While we knew that there would be fireworks nearby during our usual Friday evening picnic, we didn’t realize they’d be practically overhead.

3. My garden plot has a lot of foliage, which attracts insects, both good and bad. Some of the best, though, are the fireflies who greet me like curious fairies when I stop by near dusk. Dozens of them take flight and hover over the pathways, blinking lazily and making sure I’m not doing anything rash.

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

I dozed off contemplating a knitting pattern last night and forgot to hit publish on this post, so, just as we’re observing today (in the U.S.) as July 4th (observed), let’s also consider today as Thursday (observed). Here, then, are three beautiful things from my past week:

1. On Friday morning, the Supreme Court upheld the importance of love, the significance of marriage, and the dignity of everyone to who wants to honor the first with the second by declaring that the Constitution of the United States grants them this entitlement.

2. A Vincent-worthy bouquet on my desk at work:

3. A gallon of delicious blueberries picked in a mere hour. One of my favorite snacks of the year:

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. On Tuesday night, we had tickets to the ballgame, which meant we had an up-close and personal (but dry!) view as the clouds wildly dumped buckets of water down on D.C. Our vantage point meant we missed both the sight (although not the sound) of lightning hitting a crane across the street from the ballpark and the rainbow, but as the storm subsided we did get to watch as the skies went from looking like this:

to looking like this:

2. A fluffy sparrow fledgling ends up stuck in the window well for a while. We watch while the cats realize the bird is at stalking level, the baby bird realizes the cat is looming just over its shoulder Sylvester-style, and the bird parents start screaming instructions at their child and invectives at our pets (I assume). At that point, Rudi disassembled a cardboard box to block the cat-eye view and to give the bird a chance to pull itself together and fly out (which it eventually did).

3. I had a cool, clear, and pleasant night to myself, so after knitting class, I walked over to the library to pick up a few holds and followed it up with gelato (no lines! empty tables outside!) and starting my reading streetside. I then pedaled home via a surprisingly flat route through Georgetown.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Not setting up the picnic blanket until after the last blast of rain passes means that I stay relatively dry throughout the showing of Princess Bride.

2. A sparrow takes a vigorous dirt bath on a hot, dry evening.

3. The first tomato of the year in the garden has started to turn from green to orange.

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