Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. How could this not top the list???

2. As we were standing at the Union Square subway station ticket kiosk trying to figure out how to reload our metro passes, an older woman took the time to walk me through it. Having been that person before, I was unbelievably grateful for her patience with tourists.

3. It has been years since Rudi and I took a trip that didn’t involve visiting my family or his. Lovely as that is, it’s not the same as going someplace where it’s just the two of us the entire time. I hope we plan more such excursions.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi clears the stuff out of the way of my bike and makes sure my tail light has fresh batteries prior to the baseball game we’re due to attend. (Because of the forecast, I hadn’t planned to ride it to the game, which he didn’t know, making it even sweeter.

2. I convinced the two teammates who wanted to hang out after our volleyball game that we should go get ice cream instead of going to the bar. (I had peanut butter cup.)

3. A sun shower drops a tiny bit of rain on an otherwise dry Sunday. I am at a cafe, sitting under an umbrella on the patio, and the rain disappears after only a minute.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi celebrated his 45th birthday on Wednesday. We both took the day off from work and spent the day together, eating out, visiting an art gallery, and dodging raindrops. I made a strawberry shortcake to conclude the day.

2. One of my fellow gardeners was clearing her plot of early crops when I stopped in to plant on Sunday. She stopped by before leaving to ask if I wanted a bouquet of Johnny Jump Ups, since otherwise she was going to have to compost them.

3. I look down at my knitting to realize there is a dropped stitch half a dozen rows down laddering its way away from the needles. I pull out a crochet hook and zig-zag the yarn back up where it belongs. How cool is it to know how to fix a hole like that?!

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. It began dripping as I left the library earlier tonight, but didn’t ever turn into a full-on rain. It was enough, though, to give me a few of a faint rainbow off to the east.

2. I don’t know if these folks are dressed for Free Comic Book Day or Embassy Day or just Wear an Unusual Outfit Day, but here they are walking down Mass Ave. in Dupont Circle:

3. I got the heel turned okay on my socks, which, after the trouble I had with my Posey socks, did have me worried. Luckily, my formula for three-color striped socks holds fine (as opposed to the four colors of Posey) and I’m heading down the foot.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I planted tomato seeds a couple weeks ago. This week four little seedlings appeared in the container by my office window.

2. I won tickets to an author event with Marcia Gay Harden that took place on the rooftop of one of the recent additions to the cityscape. The views looking down on the city were impressive. (Also, it was totally upper middle-class yuppie, but the rooftop, filled with its communal reading nooks, fire pit, barbecue space, garden room, and seating areas, really was quite amazing.) It’s always so amazing to see how much green there is!

3. The weather has been hot during the daytime this week, but I’ve been able to spend the nights outdoors, sitting outside an assortment of cafes and restaurants. (I’ve also made sure to get outside at lunchtime to soak up some Vitamin D.)

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Over the weekend I saw three different people in fancy dress traveling on non-motorized wheeled vehicles — a fellow all in red (velvet hat, blazer, and white polka dotted pants) on a skateboard, a man in a kaftan and kufi on a bicycle walking his standard poodle, and a young woman in a sparkly embroidered salwar kameez and dupatta piloting her scooter down a hill near the Capitol.

2. The salmon dogwoods against a cloudy backdrop.

3. A gorgeous sunny afternoon after several days of clouds and rain.

How about you? What was beautiful in your world recently?