Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I recently heard about a yuppie doughnut shop (this is shop where the doughnuts are fancy and cost the better part of a $5 bill apiece as opposed to the blue-collar doughnut shops I grew up with) in the Virginia suburbs, so Rudi and I headed over there last Sunday. A bonus to sampling them in September is that their fall menu included several cider doughnut variations. I’m pleased to report that their cider cake doughnut is the best in the MidAtlantic that I’ve had outside of a farm (and that their other doughnuts were equally tasty). Rudi and I have declared them our favorite of the local yuppie doughnut shops.

2. Several dvd holds came in for me at the library this week. Onward is the latest Pixar film, and it is the utterly charming (and a little weepy) story about two teen brothers who inherit their father’s magical staff and the quest they embark upon (using the older’s extensive roleplaying experience) to bring him back to life for a single day.

3. Karen and I got a chance to catch up earlier in the week for the first time in a couple months. It was really great to hear her voice.

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

Here is today’s haul of books from the library. Apparently I was going for face books by non-American authors in my book requests. Any nominations for which I should start first?

I don’t know if it’s just seasonal allergies kicking in or a temporary malaise because of passing the six-month mark since shutdown or the noticeably earlier sunsets, but I’ve just been really tired this week.

And it shows with my Tour de France shawl, which has not grown much since the weekend. I’m going to have to up my pedal stroke (or at least stay awake) if I want to be on the medal stand in Paris on Sunday.

Head over to As Kat Knits to see what other people are knitting and reading.

I can hear the whistle of a train.

This shouldn’t be especially noteworthy — I only live three miles from train tracks, after all, and sound carries, especially at night. However, since June we’ve had fans and/or the air conditioner running and I haven’t heard the late night train in months.

But there’s been a change in the air this week, and today I turned everything off and opened the window.

It’s nice to be reacquainted with the night again.

(Feel free to remind me of this when someone lights up a joint on the sidewalk outside our apartment.)

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl invites to post about covers. I gave a brief thought about trying to be clever and post about either book adaptations or about songs about books, but I figured I’d need those for a future Tuesday topic and then I’d regret playing things loose and fast tonight.

So instead I’ll share with you my four favorite covers of things I’ve been read so far this year:

It was a nice weekend, if not quite as productive as I would have liked.

I started off by sleeping in.

I went to the garden, the library, the farmers market, and the grocery store.

We sampled wares from a new-to-us doughnut shop.

I knit and read.

We pulled together several bags of stuff for Goodwill (that Rudi will drop off during their intake hours during the week).

We had a monthly video chat with friends as well as talking with all of our parents.

We watched a table reading with the cast of The Princess Bride, some of a Mets game, and several stages of the Tour de France.

We did some, but not all, of the chores around the apartment we needed to get done.

I signed up to send postcards to voters.

Baking, biking, and nail beautification will have to wait for a later date.

I’m not sure if it’s obvious that it’s any larger than my midweek photo, but the shawl is. At that point, I was just a couple rows into the third mesh section. I’ve now completed that and the subsequent chunk of garter stitch.

This next section of mesh is supposed to be the last and will add 71 stitches to the span of the shawl over 32 rows. Right now, my ball of yarn is about the size of pink rubber ball … maybe slightly bigger. I’m hopeful that I have enough yarn to complete that section and then to add a few additional rows of garter to the three that the pattern calls for. I’ve heard that will help the shawl lie flat.