This afternoon got more dramatic as it went along.

It started with a quiet trip to the farmers market, followed by brunch with the cat.

I went to the garden, where I picked and ate peas and marveled at the fact that my fava beans are legit. I mean, there are only two plants (I swear there used to be three) and there are only two pods on each plant (a bunch of the flowers shriveled up, rather than growing into pods), so it will be a meager, but cherished side dish when Rudi and I pick them next week. Unless the bunny my next-door gardener informs me is living under his squash plants eats them first. Do you think rabbits like fava beans? I mean, my neighbor is growing carrots, which years of watching Loony Toons suggests should be its first choice…

I then headed to the pool, where Rudi joined me after his bike ride. It was cooler and less crowded than yesterday due to today’s overcast skies, cooler temps, and impending storms. But it felt lovely in the water, which was the key thing. Until the thunder kicked in, at which point that felt like the key thing. Understandably and responsibly, the lifeguards kicked us all out.

At which point we started walking home. The rumbling was getting louder, but it wasn’t crashing and there was no visible lightning, so it felt like a medium paced stroll was suited to the occasion. I even paused to take a photo of the mimosa tree outside the local bar.

It was then that giant splotches of rain started dropping. Except that they rapidly (like within 30 seconds) turned into hail. Nickel-sized hail. Here is some of it, since we had to stop for the traffic light on the way home.

It paused briefly, to rain really cold rain on us, then the hail began again in earnest, by which point Rudi and I were pretty much home. Except that a rather impertinent hailstone managed to scoot in the crewneck of my sun shirt and down the front of my bathing suit, where in lodged in the shelf bra. I mean, really!

There were reports of golf ball-sized hail, but we did not have to deal with any of it. (You can see it here. You can also see the rainbows that because we were inside we also missed.) And it should be noted that when the hail began we were only two blocks from home. And if it had been the larger hailstones raining down even with that distance, we definitely would have sought immediate shelter in a doorway or some such, rather than continuing home, because hail can be very serious. Even the smaller ones stung!

After that, the day calmed back down. We had teatime to warm back up, watched some bike racing, read, and concluded our day with French bread pizza and daiquiris. All in all, a nice, quiet end to a dramatic afternoon.

A Night — there lay the Days between —
The Day that was Before —
And Day that was Behind — were one —
And now — ’twas Night — was here —

Slow — Night — that must be watched away —
As Grains upon a shore —
Too imperceptible to note —
Till it be night — no more —

     ~Emily Dickinson

This week has been productive in some ways, but utterly not in others, so I’m hoping to right the ship and find some balance this weekend. Here’s what I’m aiming for, in an ideal world:

• Head to the garden to plant what I picked up at the garden center and harvest our latest fruits and veg.
• Check out a neighborhood museum. Several of my most local small museums have free admission once a year and this is it. It’s been a while since I’ve taken part in the museum walk, so it might be time to do it again.
• Go for a swim.
• Sample some of the wares from restaurants on the other side of the city, possibly.
• Kick off the library’s summer reading program by reading at least 20 minutes a day.
• Take in some live music.
• Visit the library.
• Send out a couple resumes.
• Find the title to my car. (With luck it will be where it should be on my desk.)
• Do some tidying.
• Drink daiquiris.
• Get my shawl back on track.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I bought a flat of strawberries on Sunday and got them all cut up and dealt with, which is a task, much like writing book reviews, that I prefer completed rather than in progress.

2. I was really impressed with how effortlessly fast this young woman was in the pool … until I realized she was twins.

3. A friend texted this week to say that she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer, but didn’t have anything other than an initial diagnosis. She followed up after her visit with the surgeon to say that it was early-stage cancer and that some more tests would be necessary before a final course of action could be determined, but that overall the news was very optimistic. As she is not the only friend I’ve had with breast cancer, I’m so grateful that we live in a time when treatments are so successful.

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

I’m going to rip out a few dozen rows on my shawl, I’ve decided. It’s been sitting in time-out while I considered my options, wondering if I was being too picky. Eventually I decided to consult Rudi. If he noticed, without much prompting, what the problem was, then back I should go.

And he did.

The problem is right there at the center “v” of the shawl, where it briefly, but rather abruptly, switches to orange. When I was lining up my leftovers, it didn’t seem like such a sharp changeover, but it is in real life. And if I’m going to have spent six years knitting a shawl, I should probably not include the bit I’m unhappy with at its most visible spot, right?

Luckily, I think that if I just rip back and excerpt that little bit of orange that it will fade much more in concert with the rest of the shawl. And hopefully it won’t cause me to run short of yarn. Keep your fingers crossed…

On the reading front, I’m reading Sandhya Menon’s From Twinkle, with Love, a YA romance featuring an Indian-American teen who wants to be a director. The novel is written in journal format, but as letters to famous female directors that Twinkle admires. In audio, I’m listening to one of this spring’s Audiobook Sync titles, Swing, by Kwame Alexander. So far, I’m finding it far more similar to his sports titles, which I loved, than his previous music-related book, Solo. Although to be fair, Swing combines a focus on music with a focus on baseball, so maybe this is the culmination of both. I’m also reading Grace Talusan’s The Body Papers, a memoir about immigration, abuse, and cancer, because I went to school with one of her siblings. I’m early in right now, but appreciate how hard it must have been for her to share her story with the world.

Want to hear more about what people are crafting and reading? Head to As Kat Knits for the roundup.

The weekend included feasting on daiquiris and ice cream, lounging at the pool and at the park, and watching movies and sunsets. The Burrow got neglected in favor of outside time, and that is how it should be for the first official weekend of summer.