Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Saturday morning we were awakened by a huge racket outside our window well, where angry birds were making a ruckus about Corey sitting in his usual spot in the window. I’d noticed a nest above our sidewalk weeks earlier (it was well hidden, but they’d picked up some blue-and-white striped nylon string to include and it announced the location if you looked up at the right spot) and assumed that was what the hullabaloo was related to. That morning I could tell there were nestlings, but not how many, and I couldn’t be certain of their species, since I’d seen a couple different birds on the property.

Over the weekend, I became more sure. There were three babies and they were robins, since I often happened by as a parent was bringing a snack.

By Monday morning, the nest was vacant, and this feathery fellow was waiting his or her turn at seeing the world:

2. The office roofdeck has been unlocked, but without furniture for months — far later now than usual into the season. This week new chairs suddenly populate the space.

3. I’m gathering mulberries when I begin to hear thunder in the distance and decide I should start for home. It’s only half a mile or so, but I’m still several blocks from home when the percussion of large raindrops taps a more regular beat on my plastic container. But before the storm really begins to flex its muscles, I’m down the stairs, through the door, and into dry clothing.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. We harvest our first two quarts of strawberries from the garden.

2. Rudi and I spend the weekend at Bethany Beach in Delaware. There is sun and sand and surf and salt in the air. We eat giant ice cream cones and lots of fish and play mini golf and read on the beach. And because, for the area, the air and water are still on the cool side, there aren’t really any crowds.

3. I convince Rudi that since we’re on the shore, we should watch the sun rise over the ocean.

How about you? What was beautiful in your world this week?

It’s Thursday, so it’s time to look back at three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Amani and Marcus are in town for a few days. We get a whole evening with them, which feels decadent, given how many people I know would love to see them.

2. We spend a gloriously perfect Sunday afternoon up at Mitchell Park. Rudi works on a blog post and I read. Music plays in the area, although we can’t pinpoint where and whether it’s live. Then a cellist begins and we realize that there’s a wedding beginning in the section of the park with the benches.

3. A late afternoon rain shower puts yet another night of volleyball in jeopardy; we’ve been canceled for less than this earlier in the season. Yet a call to the league’s weather line assures us that games will go on “as scheduled.”

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

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Nick Bayard, who was a guest artist at the gallery next door back in the fall, had a cd release party and concert tonight. Between him and his two friends/opening acts, the evening’s entertainment included songs about poverty, love, alien abductions, knitting, and garden gnomes. I do love modern folk music.

2. It has rained more Wednesdays than it hasn’t the last couple months, which means I have two make-up volleyball games scheduled this week. We can’t pull together enough people not to have to forfeit, which seems a dismal way to end a season. But, then, an hour before game time, the skies open up, forcing the matches to be postponed again.

3. Inspired by a colleague who brought homemade ice cream to last year’s office potluck, I decided for this year’s to make sorbet so my vegan coworkers could have some, too. With strawberries in season, the flavor choice was obvious. I hadn’t made sorbet before, so was a little nervous about debuting it so publicly, but the recipe turned out to be a solid one. Person after person came up to compliment me.

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

This is my 500th three-beautiful-things post. Thanks, as always, to Clare who inspired the topic and who recently celebrated her 10th anniversary of recording beautiful things.

The rain that we’ve been waiting for for two days has finally arrived and is currently drenching everything outside. It has not yet moved to drenching things inside, but I think I’ll put down precautionary towels before I head off to bed. Better safe than sorry, particularly since I’m going to get up early for Bike to Work Day and to make some sorbet to take to my office potluck. (I have yet to decide if I’m going to bother biking downtown in a downpour. And, if I do decide to, whether I’ll take my own bike or Bikeshare.) Keep your fingers crossed for an early-afternoon end to the rain so we can celebrate Rudi’s birthday with a picnic with friends.

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Longtime friends Eri and ECN come down from New York for a long weekend and Eri’s 40th birthday. We introduce them to some local eateries and our favorite fountain (at Malcolm X Park), eat strawberry shortcake (with the first strawberries of the season at the farmers market), and stay up late catching up. It’s a nice visit.

2. Four skeins of yarn wound and tucked into a bag for a couple impending projects. Their potential energy is palpable.

3. In honor of impending company, I take a comp day and a vacation day off from work to make it a four-day weekend. While I spend one of the days cleaning, I also do a lot of sleeping. When I headed back to work on Tuesday, I felt more together than I have in a long time.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week? Feel free to share in the comments.

This is one of those nights when I struggle to remember what I told myself earlier in the week would make a good item for today’s column. I’m pretty sure I’m forgetting some, but these are good, too:

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. At the craft fair last weekend, I am drawn to an artist who uses fabric as her medium to produce landscapes. While what pulls me in are depictions of the kite festival, ultimately Rudi and I take home a tetraptych of a tree through the seasons. It feels very grownup to buy actual art to put on our walls.

2. One of our favorite parts of the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival every year is the sheep dog demonstration, which is run by the same two shepherds and their border collies. This year, they have used a different breed of sheep than usual, and it’s clear these animals do not appreciate the gig. The emcee announces they’ve escaped the pen several times over the weekend and have had to be rounded up for real from the festival grounds. As we watch, the sheep decide they do NOT want to be herded through a chute and over a little bridge, because they start charging the dog trying to herd them. This is a first in our experience, and while the shepherds ultimately restore order (we learn why it is a shepherd carries a crook, for instance), it’s fascinating to watch a more legitimate demonstration, rather than what’s usually a pretty scripted event.

3. Colorful poppies and fragrant lilies of the valley from farmers markets join the spring’s final delicate bouquet of violets from the garden in vases atop the fridge.

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