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?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. A letter arrives from an old friend when I’m feeling blue. He tells me of the man in his life and his new house and his travel plans, and it all seems like a happily ever after ending.

2. One of Rudi’s friends gets married and invites us to the wedding. As part of the entertainment, his dad has built a croquet set and beanbags, and they’ve bought a bocce set. I lose to Rudi twice at beanbags, but we must come pretty close to even at bocce.

3. Karen telephones and we get to catch up for a couple of hours.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I pick a full quart of strawberries out of my garden.

2. Sarah and I go to a local farm to pick berries with her sister-in-law and her eldest nephew. Among their animal residents, they have two baby goats who elicit oohs and ahhs from us all.

3. Rudi’s mother’s phone is out and has been for a week. We hear from several concerned friends of hers who aren’t able to reach her, and we’re all glad we can reassure them that it’s nothing more serious. (We are also highly grateful to her friends who tracked her down for us, when we realized something wasn’t right.)

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