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?

This weekend included:

• Picnicking with Rudi, Shawn and Sarah at the Yards.
• Sleeping ’til past noon on Saturday.
• Finishing Fablehaven, my last book for the Once upon a Time reading challenge.
• Swimming at the local pool, where they’ve added a concession stand for the first time this year. (The pool opens for weekday swims beginning tomorrow. I’m very excited.)
• Picking the first tomato, a Stupice, from our garden. (The Green Zebras should be next.)
• Listening to and watching the rain pour down from our safe, dry Burrow.
• Buying lots of fruit at the farmers market this morning. (It was the first week for raspberries, gooseberries, peaches, and nectarines.)
• Working on the two-at-a-time socks. (I’m past the gusset decreases and only have a couple more inches of stockinette to finish by classtime on Wednesday.)
• Listening to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince while prepping fruit for preserves.
• Having dinner with Rudi and Shawn at a local Peruvian restaurant. (I had a mango-based drink and mushroom cebiche, and split a chocolate quinoa cake with Rudi for dessert.)

Weekending along with Pumpkin Sunrise.

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?

I’ve been doing a lot of knitting and reading recently, so thought it was time for an update on both. I’m Yarning Along with Ginny.

It’s the final week of the Once Upon a Time Reading Challenge and I’m on my fifth and final (new) book for the challenge. Fablehaven is the first book in a middle-grade modern fantasy series about two young siblings who spend a few weeks with their somewhat estranged grandfather one summer. I expect to finish it up in the next couple days and then it’s on to Station Eleven (which I hear is dystopian for those who don’t normally care for dystopian) and Saint Maizie (a historical fiction about the Queen of the Bowery). And I started Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on audiobook last night, for listening while knitting.

My two-at-a-time socks are speeding along. I’ve picked up the stitches after the heel turn and am now decreasing toward the toe. My final class is next Wednesday, so they’ll be done in a week. So excited to add a new skill to my knitting toolkit.

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?