Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. While last week I would have assured you that I had no zucchinis in my garden, this week I discovered one nearly as long as my forearm hiding under leaves and vines.

2. Rudi went to get the nail pulled out of our tire and the tire patched and brought home doughnuts from my favorite shop, even though I was the one driving when the car was attacked by road debris.

3. P!nk’s Summer Carnival concert was great, even though a tornado watch pushed the start time back and caused the opening opening act to have to forfeit their time. Even when the skies opened halfway through P!nk’s set and poured down on her, the band, and the dancers, they kept the energy and the joy high and endeared themselves to everyone in the crowd at the ballpark.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. My garden haul this week included tiny red chili peppers, orange cherry tomatoes, a yellow squash, a green bell pepper, blue-purple potatoes, and purple and green basil — and rainbow chard.

2. John, Nicole, and Juliet arrive for a visit — their first in four years. We eat a sushi feast to celebrate.

3. After 29.5 days (not that I was counting or anything) biking around Europe, Rudi came home.

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

Many thanks to Monica from Newbery and Beyond for my delightful GiftmasinJuly package!

Included were three (!) books from my TBR list — Neil Gaiman’s The View from the Cheap Seats; Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop, edited by Otto Penzler; and Lily King’s Five Tuesdays in Winter. I am going to have many happy hours of reading ahead of me!

I also got some goodies from Iceland, including fruits of the forest tea and chocolate, and some new, fun stickers!

Thank you so much, Monica, and thank you to Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl for hosting this favorite summer swap1

I meant to post this last night as usual, but then I was having such a good time, I forgot.

Three beautiful things from my past week;

1. Sam and I got a chance to have a call for the first time in ages. It was so good to get caught up with how he, Alexis, and Max are doing.

2. Eri and I spent two days in New York City, hanging out and seeing Sweeney Todd and talking. This afternoon, Eric came down to join us and we went to the American Natural History Museum and had a vegan dinner and gelato shaped into roses for dessert.

3. Susan and I had lunch Monday and got the chance to catch up on how her summer is going and her kids’.

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

Whoops! Yesterday, I had a piece of writing I had to finish for this morning, which made me forget the piece of writing I do every Thursday night!

Here, however, are three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Being able to share food makes me happy, so I was delighted when Julie, my friend Chris’ wife, said she’d be happy to take some of the Swiss chard from my garden. I dropped a bunch off Sunday and the following night was delighted to receive a photo of the dish she made and a message saying how delicious it was. Then, yesterday, I finally got around to making some shortbread and foisted some of it on my friend Neal, who is in the final throes of work deadlines before vacation.

2. The homespun series of free concerts at Fort Reno has become one of my most anticipated rituals of summer, and last night the stars finally aligned for me to head up and enjoy a laid-back and meteorologically temperate night of punk rock.

3. We’ve had a bunch of thunderstorms this past week, sometimes in the more traditional evening hours and sometimes overnight. The ones that happen when I’m in bed are my favorites, because they make for such good sleeping. (I also like sleeping during rock concerts, so clearly I have a penchant for noisy settings.)

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 favorite reads with one-word titles. I highly recommend all of these:

1. Summerland by Michael Chabon
2. Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
3. Eliot Schrefer’s Endangered
4. Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell
5. Landline by Rainbow Rowell
6. Naomi Novick’s Uprooted
7. Booked by Kwame Alexander
8. Obsidio (The final book in the Illuminae Files trilogy) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
9. Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott
10. Mike Lupica’s Heat