Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The garden is, knock on wood, doing really well. I harvested enough peas and chard yesterday for a meal, picked my first cherry tomatoes, and spied both an adorable wee fairy eggplant and two tiny yellow squash. And the pumpkin has grown up into the bronze fennel, giving the pollinators their choice of yellow flowers.

2. We spied the last few minutes of a rainbow that followed a torrential rain that happened while we were shopping.

3. My friend Sergio and I had dinner after our game Monday night. It’s always good to go out with the whole team, but sometimes it’s nice to get one-on-one time, particularly with one of the old gang. We talked about everything from AI to families to fireflies and left feeling good despite our losses earlier in the evening.

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

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share our most anticipated titles being published in the second half of the year. Here are some of mine:

1. Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
2. A Power Unbound by Freya Marske
3. Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
4. The Mysteries by Bill Watterson
5. The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead & Wendy Mass
6. The Year of Second Chances by Lara Avery
7. The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt
8. The Blonde Identity by Ally Carter
9. Why We Love Baseball by Joe Posnanski
10. Sleepless in Dubai by Sajni Patel

How about you? What books coming out later this year are you looking forward to most?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I’m watching Scarecrow and Mrs. King on Tubi and enjoying seeing the D.C. scenery. At least in this first season, they do seem to have done a lot of exterior shooting in the city.

2. My friend BW calls and we have a proper catch-up for the first time in ages.

3. The first corn on the cob of the summer (often disappointingly bland) was surprisingly delicious. As was the first peach, which got mixed into my yogurt parfait with fresh strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries.

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

I always enjoy the seasonal topics posted by That Artsy Reader Girl as part of Top Ten Tuesdays. Here are ten titles I’m hoping to get to this summer (even if tradition dictates I’ll maybe finish only 20% of this list before fall:

1. The Year of Second Chances by Lara Avery
2. Elizabeth Acevedo’s Family Lore
3. The Wager by David Grann
4. Jana Goes Wild by Farah Heron
5. Brian Selznick’s Big Tree
6. Tell Me How It Ends by Quinton Li
7. Susannah Hoffs’ This Bird Has Flown
8. Enter the Body by Joy McCullough
9. The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
10. Jami Attenberg’s I Came All This Way to Meet You

How about you? What books are you looking forward to reading this summer?

It’s a three-day weekend for the federal government, which means D.C. has emptied out quite a bit. But some of us are still here. What do I hope to squeeze into the next three days, you ask? Let me tell you:

• Start my #1000WordsOfSummer project (That’s kind of a misnomer, because it only lasts for two weeks. But the idea is to write 1000 words each day over the next fortnight and to jumpstart or reinvigorate or put a solid dent into a project. I finished it last summer and am going to give it another shot, this time with the actual intent of continuing on through July.)
• Decide if I’m going to do #ChristmasInJuly this year and sign up if I am (I probably will.)
• Bake something with cherries (a cobbler or a pie, most likely)
• Play volleyball
• Swim
• Water the garden and plant beans (and maybe tomatillos)
• Go to supper at a friend of Rudi’s
• Shop at the farmers market (peaches!!!)
• Clear out the refrigerator (honestly!)
• Finish a book or two
• Sit outside at a cafe (maybe with my writing project or maybe with a book or maybe with a knitting project)
• Vacuum
• Send some mail
• Check in with some friends
• Do laundry
• Eat tons of fresh berries because it’s the best couple weeks of the year for that!

How about you? What are you hoping to do this weekend?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi and I picked two buckets of tart cherries last weekend and as of this evening, they’re all pitted and most are in the freezer.

2. I spent the better part of the week at my friend Neal’s house, taking care of my favorite doggo, Naya. And then he came back and I got to return home to my best boys, both of whom seem quite happy to have me back.

3. We are in prime berry season, which means in addition to the cherries, I’ve also bought strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries at farmers markets this week. I’m really looking forward to this weekend’s yogurt parfaits!

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