Hard to believe the second month of the year is already gone. That’s part of why I like this weekly check-in: it forces me to slow down a bit and notice what’s whipping past.

And with that, here are three beautiful things from my past week:

1. There are fresh batteries in the laser pointer and the cats charge around the apartment in pursuit of it.

2. We’ve had snowdrops since January, and the daffodils have been opening around town since early February, but on Sunday I see my first crocuses (croci?) of the season.

3. We head down to the Kennedy Center for an evening of Icelandic music, part of their Nordic Festival. Sóley was relaxed trance music. FM Belfast was entertaining pop (although a bit screechy at the beginning) and most of them stripped down to their drawers for “Underwear.” And in between was a group I discovered on the flight over to Reykjavik a couple years back: Retro Stefson. Despite winning the Icelandic equivalent of a Grammy recently, they were relatively unknown to the crowd, but they quickly won the crowd over, and I anticipate it being hard to get tickets to see them the next time they come to the U.S.

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