It’s the final Thursday of August, I’ve experienced my first earthquake, and we’re gearing up for a hurricane, but those aren’t even all of the beautiful things from my past week. Here are three more:

1. A young couple stand behind a taxi putting his luggage in the trunk. All of a sudden she launches herself at him for a final, passionate embrace; he nearly falls over from the force of it.

2. I stop by the Little Farm Stand hoping for some ripe peaches, but I’ve arrived too late. She does have white peach butter, which, when spooned onto torn pieces of baguette, make a really excellent conclusion to our rainy picnic.

3. After storms this afternoon, the weather dries out, but it remains overcast in anticipation of Irene’s arrival this weekend. Just before sundown, though, the high clouds are obscured by magnificent, towering puffs of grey and white. Now, these are clouds!

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

Another week come and gone. But before we move on to the weekend, it’s time to look back at three beautiful things from the past week:

1. John and Nicole host a dinner party. The food (all vegan) is scrumptious, and Nicole sends us home with a hunk of chocolate maple cake.

2. After months of practically no rain, we get three storms in less than a week. The absence has made us grateful and glad, and we stick arms out car windows, splash through puddles from under our umbrellas, and fall asleep to its lullaby.

3. When we first arrive at the beach the ocean water feels cold. Tired of inching my way in, I dive under a wave and bob along with the surf. Later the water feels warmer than the air, and I dive back in just to feel warm again.

How about you? What have you found beautiful this week?

Three beautiful things from my week past:

1. Rudi’s camping plans get rained out, so he crashes with friends who happen to be renting a room above a yarn store. He brings me home two lovely purple skeins of Rambouillet wool.

2. As I meander my way down to Screen on the Green, I hear familiar strains emanating from near the metro station. It’s the local trombone shout band, which I haven’t heard since last summer.

3. After Jeremiah and Rudi go to bed, Corey likes to snuggle up on my lap while I sit in the rocking chair. I know he’s really relaxed because he puts his face in my palm and falls asleep.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The sign reads, “The boss is on vacation. Sunflowers: $1” I come home with a medium-sized, yellow-centered sunflower to cheer up the kitchen.

2. A rain shower finally helps break the heat that has gripped D.C. It feels good to have water cascading down from the sky. I sit outside for a while and then open the window when I get home.

3. A crowd of teenagers board the metro train with me. One boy is wearing sparkly green shamrock deely-boppers.

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

Rudi’s and my workloads this summer have been out of control, not permitting us a long vacation. Last weekend afforded us the opportunity to leave town for a few precious days, the last time this summer we’ll get the chance. We drove north, in search of cooler weather and family time. Here are four (a bonus item in honor of summer holidays!) beautiful things from the trip:

1. Karen and I spend Sunday afternoon in Putnam, leisurely eating brunch, browsing a toy/bookstore, walking along the river, and drinking cool, refreshing beverages in a visit reminiscent of years past. I’d suggested we take her two young kids to the state park (which also would have been lots of fun), but instead her husband Michael said he’d watch them allowing us a perfect girls’ day out on our own.

2. After reading an article about funky used bookstores around the country, I discover one an hour from my folks’ house. Montague Bookmill, along with a restaurant, cafe, music shop, and art gallery, is located along a shady brook in an old, 19th-century mill. Their motto: “Books you don’t need in a place you can’t find.”

3. Our afternoon of swimming in the ocean fizzles just as it’s about to start when a thunderstorm rolls through southern New Jersey. Forbidden from the swimming beach even after the skies clear, we instead head further into the state park, where they have fishing beaches (with dangerous undertow), and walk in the water. Rudi discovers that just under the surface of the sand are millions of small clams. After a wave washes back into the sea, where you have been standing appears to be a pebble- and shell-strewn beach. Within five seconds, though, the pastel-hued shells are gone, having shifted onto their side and burrowed back into the once-again smooth sand. We amuse ourselves by picking up handfuls of sand and having the half-inch creatures burrow into our palms.

4. You know you’re really home when the waitress at your favorite pizzeria double-checks your order by verifying you ordered a “moutz* pie.”

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

*For anyone not from southern Connecticut or other places with a large Sicilian population, “mozzarella” is pronounced “MOUT-za-rell” and is shortened to “moutz.”

While the last few days have challenged my definition of dry, the weekend was as spectacularly beautiful as they come.

Here are three beautiful things from my week past:

1. It’s been months since Karen and I managed to get one another on the phone. Finally, she suggests meeting for lunch via our cells. Although she’s talking from the grounds of a monastery and I from a downtown park, it’s almost (if you tilt your head and squint) as if we were both at a picnic table together watching ants steal bites of her muffin and squirrels climb the trees. Honestly, it’s the best use of a midday hour I’ve had in a long time.

2. Rudi and I head over to Virginia for a Tour de France viewing party. As chair of the local cycling club (which is hosting the shindig), Rudi knows everyone in the room and is eagerly sought after by them all for a word or two. I enjoy watching him chat, because unlike me, he really enjoys it. I have a few brief conversations with some very polite cyclists, but am completely content to knit on my sock and split my attention between the Tour stage on the big screen and the Mets game on the smaller ones.

3. My cell rings early in the afternoon on Saturday. It’s Rudi, who is out in the Virginia countryside on a typical weekend bike ride. Immediately a frost forms around my heart. Why is he calling when he should still be on the bike? Is it someone else using his phone to reach me? It turns out he has had an accident, but is mostly okay. While one bike wheel is out of commission, Rudi’s corporeal injuries are of the scrape and bruise variety, painful in the moment but easily healed from. I breathe a deep sigh of relief.

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