Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi and I were at the ballpark on Tuesday for a glorious evening of baseball. As with most sporting events these days, the Nationals employ staff to do routine schtick with attendees between innings, such as opening a box while wearing baseball gloves or identifying songs. Between the 6th and 7th innings, the host running the trivia game asked a guy for the nickname of our third-baseman, which he answered correctly. The host congratulated him and then asked if he’d be willing to answer a bonus question, at which point the man’s boyfriend got down on one knee and proposed. While I know public proposals are risky and put a lot of pressure on the person being asked, it seemed like this proposal had been well-thought out, especially since it included a custom engagement ring engraved to resemble the stitching of a baseball. Oh, and Teddy said yes.

2. Our library’s Fab Lab maker space held a free jewelry repair class today, and although I couldn’t find what I’d bought to fix the necklace that Rudi had commissioned for me by a friend, the librarian running the session had supplies (including some new spacer beads, since one of the original beads had a piece of the waxed cord stuck in it that I couldn’t get out) that worked well enough to make it wearable once again.

3. The afternoons have been very comfortable this week, which has enabled me to spend a lot of time outdoors.

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

This needs to be short, because I dozed off writing it and I have to go to bed.

I suppose I would get further faster with my sock if I picked it up on days that didn’t start with “w.” I am through the cuff now and am ready to begin the leg.

New books started this week: Tricia Levenseller’s Daughter of the Siren Queen, the second in a duology about a female pirate & her crew, and Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi, about two friends who meet the day the girl starts college.

Head over to As Kat Knits for other book/craft combos.

The Nationals have a new mural that they were just finishing up when Rudi and I were last at the ballpark. It was designed by Peter Chang and Brandon Hill of D.C.’s No Kings Collective, a creative arts agency that has done some other major murals around town.

The mural feels very local. For instance, the angle of my picture doesn’t do it justice, but the “i” is the Washington Monument. The batter is Ryan Zimmerman, who was the team’s first franchise player after it moved to the District from Montreal, and who is our aging and oft-injured first baseman. “See you later!” is the catch phrase of our tv announcer following all home runs. The image of the Washington Senators is based on a poster from the team’s game versus the Yankees in 1957. Some of the colors harken back to the Homestead Grays, D.C.’s Negro League franchise.

I really like it.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic at That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to recommend ten books from our favorite genre. I’ve got ten mystery series I like to share with you (I’ve only included series where I’ve read more than one title, which lets out several great series I’d otherwise also recommend) where I can only attest to the debut book):

1. The Lady Sherlock series by Sherry Thomas (1st book: A Study in Scarlet Women)
2. The Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith (1st book: The Cuckoo’s Calling)
3. Miss Fisher Mysteries by Kerry Greenwood (1st book: Cocaine Blues)
4. The Veronica Speedwell series by Deanna Raybourn (1st book: A Curious Beginning)
5. The Discreet Retrieval Agency series by Maia Chance (1st book: Come Hell or Highball)
6. The Book Scavenger series by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman (1st book: Book Scavenger)
7. Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries by Donna Leon (1st book: Death at La Fenice)
8. Being a Jane Austen Mystery series by Stephanie Barrow (1st book: Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor)
9. The Lizzy and Diesel series by Janet Evanovich (1st book: Wicked Appetite)
10. The Evan Evans series by Rhys Bowen (1st book: Evans Above)

How about you? What are books you recommend in your favorite genre?

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