It’s Thursday night and I suddenly find myself needing to churn out a brief post on Ravelry about tomorrow’s Tour de France stage, so this will be a quick recap of three beautiful things from the past week:

1. An old friend lets us know he’s coming to town suddenly, just before we’re due to depart for the weekend. We leave work early and meet him for lunch, which turns into a relaxing four-hour recap of life, family, travels, and mutual friends.

2. When up in Connecticut for a weekend, the original scope of the visit seems all too short. Our respective bosses give last-minute permission for a extra day of leave so we can spend a little more time with my family (also allowing Rudi some time for cd/dvd shopping).

3. Volleyball on Wednesday is played in sweltering, pregnant* conditions. As I creep home afterwards, soaked in sweat and under darkening skies, I think, anytime after I get home it could start raining. Not ten minutes later, the storm rages into the area. I walk back outside and stand on the stairs as a cool torrent of water pours over me.

* The atmosphere, not me.

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

First Thursday in July, time for three beautiful things:

1. Fresh sheets on the bed and just showered me between them.

2. Part of the strawberry patch in the garden plot cleared for beans.

3. After the magnificent D.C. fireworks show concludes, hundreds of lights come from the dark water of the Potomac, where dozens of kayakers and rowers are heading north on the unlit river.

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

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. I made it down to the Lincoln Memorial in time for sunrise on the first day of summer. Here’s what I saw:

2. The Supermoon was truly super and superb. The first shot is from 2 a.m. or so Sunday morning. The others are from moonrise Sunday evening:

3. The first peas and tomatoes from the garden.

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

This has to be quick. My alarm is set for 4 hours from now in the hopes I’ll get up in time to witness the first sunrise of summer. (I’d bet against me, too, if we were wagering, but I figured the worst that happens is that I ignore the alarm.)

So, with no additional fuss, the final three beautiful things of the spring:

1. We see an albino squirrel at a local park:

2. Foraging for mulberries in the trees along national park property (technically illegal) at night on our walk home. In the dark, we use the flashlight app on my phone to find ripe berries and to avoid picking the bugs that were nearly as plentiful.

3. We’ve witnessed three sunsets this week: from a picnic with Sarah at the Yards on Friday, from the Georgetown Waterfront park on Saturday, and from the ballpark tonight. The skies were lovely (particularly this evening’s), and the weather all you could hope for in the final week of spring.

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

Today was gloomy, but the storm clouds started to clear near dusk, offering up a glowing skyline to enjoy. Here are three more beautiful things from my past week:

1. Fireflies showed up this week. I passed a woman who was trying to catch one last night. (She was no more successful than I was over the weekend.)

2. I did something outstandingly stupid and hurt myself. After the tears and the not fainting and the cursing of why we only have ointments Rudi likes, I applied a Muppets-themed bandage and immediately felt less awful.

3. For his birthday last month, I gave Rudi concert tickets to see Of Monsters and Men and he kindly took me along with him to the show this week. Our grilled cheeses (hooray for a venue that offers veg-friendly options) were melted, they’ve added milkshakes since last summer, and the seats I’d procured were sheltered and on the aisle (which meant we didn’t have to sit in the mud from the previous day’s deluge and that I didn’t have a panic attack about personal space infringements). The opening acts were decent, and our Icelandic headliners — and the crowd — were full of positive energy. It was a good evening.

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

This week has been surprisingly quick. How is tomorrow Friday? Anyway, before we get there, we have to finish up Thursday, which means three beautiful things from the past week:

1. I return to a work conference to help pack up only to find the task already done. “The only thing left to do is to take a centerpiece.” A vase of golden flowers now sits on my desk.

2. The display set up next to the library’s front door includes Sarah Dessen’s new novel, which just came out on Tuesday.

3. I feel inordinately lazy, but want to take advantage of some of the strawberries in the fridge for dessert. Strawberry fool requires only four ingredients, takes ten minutes to prepare, and is delicious.

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