Three (more) beautiful things from my past week:

1. We eat Sunday supper on the back deck at my folks’. Torches (and copious amounts of bug spray) ward away mosquitoes. The weather is perfect. Our barbecue is delicious. And the heavy-duty strand of lights my parents and I hung the day before off the side of the house allow us to see clearly even after the sun has set.

2. Eri and I meet up Friday evening along the Hudson River. We drink smoothies and sit in the park and meet a gigantic and friendly cat on a leash (and his equally friendly owner) and eat veggie burgers and fries outside. Karen and I meet up for lunch on Sunday in my old town. We walk along Main Street and end up at a cafe that moved in after I left and eat tasty crepes and drink Avery sodas on their front patio. We conclude our visit with a trip to the coffeehouse, my favorite spot on the planet to get steamed milk.

3. We pull over to pick up a couple ears of corn from a pair of boys who’ve set up a stand in their front yard. A self-propelled car left over from toddler days holds spare ears.

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

I have a few finished knits from last month to show you, but that will be later this week. In the meantime, August is the annual Sockdown in Ravelry’s Sock Knitters Anonymous group, wherein we all work on clearing off our needles by finishing lingering sock projects. I have two I’d like to finish, with two more as a stretch goal. This is the second of Rudi’s pair of 2×2 ribbed mummy socks. I’ve got about an inch more of leg before I start the heel flap.

On the reading front, a weekend away meant that my audiobook, Amy Poehler’s Yes, Please, expired before I was able to finish the last few chapters. As the weekend was otherwise delightful, I have no regrets and have re-requested it from the library. I hope it’ll be back before the end of the month, since I’d like to count it in my library summer reading totals.

I took Dietland up to Connecticut with me, but didn’t get much read. I did spend a lovely hour or two in the park this evening reading it, though. And I picked up Circus Mirandus at the library today after a dentist appointment when I didn’t have a book to read on the train trip back across town. I am optimistic about both of them, although in decidedly different ways.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Dusting on baby powder after a shower on a steamy morning.

2. Rudi was away for the weekend, so I took myself out on a bike ride and dinner outdoors: a tortilla with local corn and tomatoes, new potatoes and summer squash and horchata at a nearby taqueria, followed by a pot of tea and a blueberry shortcake for dessert next door. I know how to show myself a good time.

3. The blue moon rose orange over the Anacostia, peeking out at Shawn and me from behind a Navy ship.

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