I’m just back in from going the long way to collect the mail. Yes, it is the middle of the night. Yes, it is raining. Yes, it is in the 50s.

I threw on my winter raincoat to go out. Normally, that would be overkill, but I was wearing shorts.

After a moment’s consideration, I slipped my mask on around my wrist, rather than over my face.

And, then I headed outside, hoping to encounter no one. I made a whole loop around the block — four complete (short) blocks — before stopping at our mailbox, mask still unneeded.

It was glorious. I truly envy those of you who can just collect your mail without having to consider a face covering.

I was stymied by an ice-breaker question asked today during a meeting: What have you added to your life since the pandemic began?

I think some of this may be why I’m struggling again lately. While I settled on the answer of growing zucchini, I’m not really sure it’s true. I can point to plenty of subtractions in my life. It’s all I see right now, with the threat of more looming just over the horizon. But all my decision-making is based on knowing what I stand to lose could be so much worse if I’m cavalier with my choices.

But maybe, like with squash, I need to find the small additions in my life. They won’t balance the equation against what has been taken away. But they might be enough that I can find peace.

And so, too, it is with my long weekend. Turns out four days is really the minimum number I needed. But I’m going to schedule another one in a couple weeks, when the foliage starts to turn, so Rudi and I can take a drive up to Skyline Drive.

And I have full weeks off at Thanksgiving and Christmas to look forward to. (Wear a mask, people, and stay away from crowds. I’d really like to be able to see my family before the end of the year.)

I didn’t get everything done this weekend that I’d hoped to do, but there was gardening (and the surprise zucchini!), a bike ride, a little shopping, the beach, knitting, apple picking, pizza, ponies, several movies (including the charming Enola Holmes on Netflix), National Book Festival sessions on YouTube, cider doughnuts, political postcard writing, fairy lights, a visit with a friend, a tomato tart, painted toenails, and ice cream, among other things. Which now that I list them out does sound like a pretty full four days.

I have a new boss starting tomorrow, a vacancy filled that I’m hopeful will eventually mean giving me a little breathing space to actually start getting work done again during business hours, rather than just managing everyone else’s work. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Today, a surprise in the garden!

We’ve spent all summer nurturing a squash plant that seemed to grow blossoms, but never actual squash. Then, last week, Rudi saw a zucchini starting to form:

Today, I discovered this growing beneath it:

We grew a surprise zucchini — our first in more than a decade of gardening!

I’m only halfway through my vacation weekend. What else might it include?

I definitely want to keep up the trend of spending time outside. Some time on the garden, some on the bike, and lots in the park.

But I’d also like to spend some time inside. The Burrow is a hot mess and I’d like to tame it some. Plus, I came home with apples and cucumbers from a trip to a farm today, so pickles and pie might separately be on my agenda.

I need to spend some more time writing postcards.

Finally, I still need to get some more sleep. While the last two days have been great, they’ve both involved getting up early, so here’s to a Saturday without an early alarm.

How about you? What are you getting up to this weekend?

Three beautiful things from our past week:

1. We spent the afternoon on Assateague Island, home to one of the wild pony herds in the U.S. We went camping at Assateague/Chincoteague about five years ago and I hadn’t seen any ponies, although Rudi had encountered them while out on his bike. So I was delighted that several of the ponies were out next the roadside as soon as we came down on their side of the bridge.

2. The day was overcast and a little cool and drizzly, with the water warmer than the air. The yellow flags were out indicating dangerous riptides, so I just stuck to wading. But the beach is the beach is the beach.

3. Somewhere along the line, Rudi and I have managed to spend 25 years together. He makes me tea every morning, sometimes even in the pot that he hates. He comes and kills/removes bugs when I ask him to (or screech), even if he’d been asleep at the time of the encounter. He gamely listens to hours of video when I get tired of having ear buds in and can probably give you word-for-word recitations of some of my patient testimonials at this point. He’s been party to the best and witness to the worst of my life for two and a half decades, and I am a lucky and better woman for it. Happy anniversary, Rudi!

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