Rudi and I headed north for a long weekend to catch Paul Simon on his final tour, Homeward Bound, up in Boston. He played many of our favorites and songs that spanned nearly his entire career, from his Simon & Garfunkel days to his most recent album.

For the first few songs, Paul’s voice was a little wavery and I wondered if that was to emphasize that it was time to hang up his touring hat. I was a little sad for that because my favorite, “American Tune,” was the lead-off song.

I’ve seen Paul a bunch of times over the years, and, all signs to the contrary, he’s not usually my favorite performer. He tends to be a little tight and a little terse and would prefer to let his music do the talking for him. But this time, either because he’s actually enjoying himself or because he’s relieved his touring days are nearly behind him, he seemed looser and to truly be enjoying himself. He told stories, he mused about some random thoughts he was having while performing, he danced…

His band includes a sextet, yMusic, who were phenomenal. The songs they were featured on don’t seem to have been uploaded from Boston, but this is from the Vancouver, B.C., from earlier in the tour:

I was able to capture a shot of the photo that Paul said inspired “René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War,” which he called a surrealist song for a surrealist painter:

And this is from the Hollywood Bowl:

He also played some of his more popular songs, such as “Homeward Bound”:

“You Can Call Me Al”:

“Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”:

And “The Boxer”:

It was a great show and one that I am so glad we traveled to see. If you’ve been thinking about catching Paul on his final tour, I’d say it’s definitely worth the splurge.

Can you guess where we were yesterday?

Alliums are such pretty, improbable flowers.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. My volleyball team won its division. (Momentum was in our favor; we got progressively better as the season went on.)

2. We stopped in Princeton on our way north this evening and the easiest spot to use the loo was at the town library. They have a coffee shop and a used bookstore in their library (the former is supposed to be a feature at the new main library in D.C. when it reopens, I believe) and this really cool mosaic wall, “Happy World,” with local items as well as tiles painted by artist Ik-Joong Kang. (Libraries are my new favorite bathroom stop.)

3. Sunday was cool and grey, but I headed to the pool anyway to get in some swimming before the predicted thunderstorms. Only a handful of us had the same idea, which meant that a pool that’s designed to and often does hold more than 100 people had fewer than three dozen. For much of the time I was there, I had the deep end entirely to myself.

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

I’m nearly done with my azalea stripey socks and needed something to tide me over to the start of the Tour de France knit along, so I decided to pull out the Posey socks and get back to work on them. The grey skein will be the heels.

I’m two-thirds of the way through listening to A Conspiracy in Belgravia, the second of the gender-flipped Lady Sherlock novels by Sherry Thomas, and enjoying it quite a bit. The reader fits well, so I’d heartily endorse listening to it. In fact, I might go back and listen to the first one, I’m enjoying this one so much.

Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly won the Newbery Medal this year. It’s about four sixth-graders at the start of summer break, and 80 pages in, that’s still all I can tell you. It’s easy reading and not unenjoyable, but it’s taking a meandering route to the story and I’m feeling impatient to be into it already. I have a pile of books out from the library, so there are options for what will come next, but Children of Blood and Bone is a likely contender.

Head over to As Kat Knits if you’re looking for more of what folks are reading and crafting.

I spent several hours at the garden over the weekend, yanking out weeds, planting seeds, and harvesting vegetables. All the rain we’ve had has made my plot quite verdant, as you can see. (That’s from after all the weeding, if you can believe it.)

I pulled a plastic shopping bag’s worth of sorrel (which tonight Rudi turned into soup) and another of lettuce (three types, all of which become salads tomorrow). I also picked a handful of shelling peas and a couple strawberries.

My potato patch is full of greens, always a good sign, and I’ll need to mound the dirt back up when we get back.

One of my tomatoes has developed fruit that are now of actual cherry size. I’m just not sure if it’s a cherry tomato plant or one that still bas some growing ahead. I’ve got cages around several of them already, as well as the tomatillo, and expect to have to put up the rest for my peppers and the other tomatoes soon. The second batch of purple basil has taken (the first died in the floods we had last month) and the green will hopefully do better again now that I’ve thinned the sorrel and violets shading them.

My lavender is doing well, although it looks like tiny spiders are also enjoying the flowers. But man, do they make my plot smell nice! I try to step over that part of the garden, instead of walking around, just to encourage the scent!