Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Sarah had a birthday this week and invited folks to join her down at the new’ish beer garden next to the river for drinks. It had a shaggy, shabby backyard vibe going on — so, very relaxed and very comfortable — which was perfect for a group of middle-aged friends.

2. Rudi started a new position within his company this week. It’s doing outreach and promotion, which he’s going to be awesome at. I’m pleased for him that this is more in line with what he’d been looking to do and pleased for his company that they have found such a strong advocate for their products.

3. In the pre-dawn hours you can hear all the birds that live in the tree outside our building calling to each other. There’s at least one nest of babies, who are VERY HUNGRY!!!

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

Wednesday afternoons have mostly been pleasant recently, so I’ve been spending the time between my midday book group and my evening volleyball game at a pleasant cafe that’s along my bike ride between the library and home and close to a bike dock. They have a southern-facing patio that offers lots of sun and serve pots of tea and just enough tables to accommodate those of us who want to sit outside in the spring. Today, I opted for a bowl of yogurt and granola to accompany my tea.

This shot was taken early in my visit today, because I had not yet begun the heel flap, which I’m now past the halfway point on. It seems possible that I’ll be done with the pair sometime next week, depending on how much time I have to knit.

The novel is Maia Chance’s Gin and Panic, the third volume in her Discreet Retrieval Agency mystery novel. Set in Prohibition Era New York and featuring a young, down-on-her luck society widow and her Swedish former cook, the pair have founded a service, using detecting techniques gleaned from some of their favorite pulp magazine stories, in which they intend to retrieve items for people, often those belonging to Lola’s former social strata, and instead get themselves involved in (and often suspected of) associated murders. There’s a handsome gumshoe beau and an unhandsome gangster beau and lots of drinking and baked goods and costumes you can imagine straight out of Miss Fisher (except placed on a figure where the girdles are straining a bit more because of said baked goods). It’s light, fun fare and in this one the estate where the murder occurs is located in a fictional town not far from where I went to college, so I’m enjoying it. The fourth novel is already out and I think D.C.’s library system has a copy (or maybe has one ordered), so I don’t even wait for the next installment to be written!

If you’d like to see more of what folks are reading and crafting, head over to As Kat Knits.

I figured maybe I’d post a few poems throughout April, seeing as how it’s National Poetry Month. Here’s one by an old New England favorite:

A Prayer in Spring
   ~Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.

I stopped by the garden yesterday after picking up some seedlings at the farmers market. Yes, I know I planted seeds just last week, but these will help tide us over until the seeds pop up.

It’s arugula at the top of the shot, mizuna (a mild mustard green on the left), and lettuce (a romaine, I think) on the right. At the bottom of the shot is my sorrel, which reseeds itself every year. (The grassy things on either side are clumping onions, which I think we planted the first year we had the garden and which we just let grow wild.

My croci petered out, but the daffs continue to look nice. I anticipate, though, that this will be the last week for them. My tulip, however, will either bloom this week or next. Right now, it is sporting some very fancy green bugs that match its leaf hue exactly.

The peas did not yet have to be strung up, since their tendrils only stretched to the top of my hand. I think Rudi and I will tackle that this coming weekend, though, because they’re only a few warm days away from needing it, and those tendrils are a pain to unwind once they’ve decided to latch onto the wrong thing.

Finally, my beloved violets have emerged! I’d seen them out elsewhere in the neighborhood during the week, so I was hopeful mine had finally decided to unfurl as well. I did not collect a bouquet, since I was heading out, rather than home, from the garden, but I’ll be stopping back tomorrow or Wednesday for a nosegay (and some more in-focus photos).

I stopped by the tail end of the Friends of the Arlington Library book sale today and came away with six things: three Christmas items (two detective stories, including one whose author was, until recently, a mystery of its own, and a dvd of Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas), a favorite childhood title, The Saturdays; a book by a favorite author (Fannie Flagg) that I hadn’t yet read; and a children’s book called A Book Dragon, which I bought solely for the title.

The total bill for the bunch came to $2.25. Not a bad haul, eh?

Do you like to partake of library book sales, and, if so, do you have any favorite finds?

Today was a day for rest and relaxation.

I slept in and finished my book.

I soaked in the sun and did some knitting.

We went out for pizza and ate homemade cookies for dessert.

It was a good day.